Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., which acquired Countrywide Financial Corp., will pay $55 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by employees who accused the mortgage lender of misleading them about its financial health and causing the value of their retirement plan to drop.

The settlement is “fair, reasonable and adequate,” lawyers for the workers said in an Aug. 7 request for preliminary approval filed in federal court in Los Angeles. A hearing on the request is scheduled for Aug. 31 before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter.

The lawyers said in April that an “agreement in principle” had been reached in the 2007 class-action, or group, lawsuit alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, a federal law that protects employee pension plans.

“We are settling to avoid the cost and uncertainty of further litigation,” Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton said in an e-mailed statement. “There is no admission of wrongdoing or liability on our part.”

Calabasas, California-based Countrywide agreed in January 2008 to be acquired by Bank of America after losing $703.5 million in 2007 and almost running out of cash. The bank and former Countrywide executives and directors are also defendants in two pending lawsuits by investors in Los Angeles.

The workers’ suit was filed prior to Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide.

The case is Vincent Alvidres v. Countrywide Financial Corp., 07-05810, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 10, 2009 17:35 EDT