Babich v. Unisys Corp.

859 F. Supp. 454, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4794, 1994 WL 416766
District Court, D. Kansas·Decided April 8, 1994·No. Civ. A. No. 92-1473-MLB·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BELOT, District Judge.

This case comes before the court on defendant Unisys Corporation’s motion for reconsideration, (Doc. 101), of the court’s Memorandum and Order filed January 19, 1994 (Doc. 93) denying Unisys’s motions to dismiss and for summary judgement. 842 F.Supp. 1343.

The standards governing motions to reconsider are well established. A motion to reconsider is appropriate where the court has obviously misapprehended a party’s position or the facts or applicable law, or where the party produces new evidence that could not have been obtained through the exercise of due diligence. Anderson v. United Auto Workers, 738 F.Supp. 441, 442 (D.Kan.1990); Taliaferro v. City of Kansas City, 128 F.R.D. 675, 677 (D.Kan.1989). “[Rjevisiting the issues already addressed ‘is not the purpose of a motion to reconsider,’ and ‘advancing] new arguments or supporting facts which were otherwise available for presentation when the [456]*456original summary judgment motion was briefed’ is likewise inappropriate.” Van Skiver v. United States, 952 F.2d 1241, 1243 (10th Cir.1991).

In this ease, Unisys asserts that the court should reconsider its January 19 Memorandum and Order because it has misapprehended certain facts concerning plaintiff’s claim under ERISA § 510, 29 U.S.C. § 1140.

According to Unisys, the court’s January 19 Memorandum and Order manifests a misunderstanding of whether plaintiff, upon termination, maintained his right to take early retirement. Unisys contends:

“In his complaint and during his deposition, Babich claimed that he was selected for layoff to prevent him from obtaining retirement medical benefits and accruing additional pension credits in violation of ERISA. See Babich Dep., p. 263 and Complaint, Count IV. The Court denied Defendant’s Motion on both aspects of Plaintiffs ERISA claim. Defendant respectfully submits that the Court’s decision regarding Plaintiffs pension benefits is premised on the mistaken impression that Plaintiff was deprived of the option to take early retirement because he was laid off before attaining age fifty-five (55). In fact, Plaintiff was vested in his early retirement and pension benefits when he was laid off. Consequently, his layoff did not in any way limit, much less terminate, his ability to take early retirement. Indeed, he can still opt for early retirement at age fifty-five (55).”

(Doc. 101, pp. 1-2).

In response, plaintiff asserts that the court’s decision was not premised on a “mistaken impression that plaintiff was deprived of the option to take early retirement,” but correctly based on a finding that, because he was discharged prior to reaching early retirement age, plaintiff was prevented from (1) receiving retirement medical benefits and (2) accruing additional pension benefits. (Doe. 117, pp. 1-2).

In deciding Unisys’s motion, the court understood that plaintiffs termination did not affect his right to receive early retirement benefits upon reaching age 55. The court also understood that, at the time he was discharged, plaintiff was only 52 years old. Thus, at the time he was discharged: (1) plaintiff was not yet able to take early retirement; (2) plaintiff could not accrue additional pension benefits; and (3) plaintiff was ineligible to receive retirement medical benefits under Unisys’s plan. However, it does not appear that the court had all the facts pertaining to plaintiffs eligibility to receive medical benefits. According to Unisys, its Retirement Medical Benefit Plan is a welfare benefit plan which, under ERISA, can be modified or even terminated at the will of the company. Furthermore, Unisys claims that its Retiree Medical Benefits Plan contains a disclaimer which recently has been held to afford Unisys the unilateral right to modify or eliminate retirement medical benefits. See In re Unisys Corp. Retiree Medical Benefits ERISA Litig., 837 F.Supp. 670 (E.D.Pa. 1993). Hence, Unisys argues, even if he had remained employed, plaintiff never could have become “vested in” or “entitled to” retirement medical benefits.

In response, plaintiff contends that the decision In re Unisys is not final and “may not even involve plaintiff’ because he was terminated, not retired. (Doc. 117, p. 4). However, plaintiff does not dispute that the Unisys plan described in the booklet attached to Unisys’s motion for reconsideration is applicable to his situation, nor does he claim that the pertinent language of the plan is ambiguous.

In the pretrial order, plaintiff specifically contended that “[h]e was [nineteen] months shy of vesting in retirement medical benefits.” (emphasis added). The court understood the evidence in this case to be that if plaintiff had been discharged after reaching age 54 — approximately 19 months after he was actually terminated — plaintiff would have been eligible to receive fixed, irrevocable retirement medical benefits for the remainder of his life. Thus, the court concluded that because he was discharged at age 52, plaintiff was rendered ineligible for such medical benefits. Now, having reviewed the disclaimer in Unisys’s plan and the opinion in In re Unisys Corp. Retiree Medical Benefits ERISA Litig., 837 F.Supp. 670 (E.D.Pa. [457]*4571998), neither of which was previously presented to this court, the court believes its understanding was incorrect.1 It is undisputed that Unisys can legally change or even cancel retirement medical benefits at any time pursuant to its Retiree Medical Benefits Plan. Indeed, in 1994, Unisys did just that, requiring retirees to pay one-third of the cost of the group premium for retirement medical benefits. (Doc. 101, p. 6, n. 4).

Given Unisys’s ability to simply cancel retirement medical benefits at will, the court perceives little probative value, with respect to ERISA § 510, in plaintiffs evidence that had he been discharged nineteen months later (i.e., at age 54), he would have been eligible to receive such benefits. Hence, the only allegation remaining to support plaintiffs ERISA § 510 claim is that he was prevented from accruing additional pension benefits.

As the court stated in its January 19 Memorandum and Order, “[i]t is well settled that ‘§ 510 [of ERISA] extends to claims by vested employees for intentional interference with their ability to accrue additional benefits.’ ” (Doc. 93, p. 14, n. 18 (quoting Conkwright v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 933 F.2d 231, 238 (4th Cir.1991)). Unisys argues, based on Dodson v. New York Life Ins. Co., 1991 W.L. 180090 (10th Cir. Sept. 10, 1991) and Daryl Card v. Hercules, Inc. and John Does I-X, 1993 W.L. 351337 (10th Cir. Aug. 19, 1993),2 that “a mere diminishment in pension benefits alone is insufficient, as a matter of law, to establish a § 510 ERISA violation.” (Doc. 101, p. 2).

Dodson and Daryl Card, like the present case, involve ADEA and ERISA § 510 claims made by a plaintiff who was discharged near retirement age in a reduetion-in-force layoff. In Dodson,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Babich v. Unisys Corp., 859 F. Supp. 454, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4794, 1994 WL 416766 (D. Kan. 1994).

859 F. Supp. 454 (Babich v. Unisys Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related