Elinor Otto v. Employee Ret. Income Plan

667 F. App'x 660

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Decided: July 28, 2016
• Docket: 15-55987
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Elinor Otto appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment on her ERISA claim in favor of her Boeing pension plan, the Employee Retirement Income Plan—Hourly West (the Plan). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

The text of the Plan does not unambiguously require that active employees’ minimum payments be annually increased to the product of the employees’ years of service and applicable rate from the previous year. The Plan text is ambiguous as to whether the term “Accrued Benefit determined or redetermined as of the immediately preceding December 31” includes the actuarial reduction to the Accrued Benefit. The Plan’s interpretation including the reduction is reasonable, and consistent with its stated purpose of providing income after retirement. See Dolan v. U.S. Postal Serv., 546 U.S. 481, 486, 126 S.Ct. 1252, 163 L.Ed.2d 1079 (2006) (“Interpretation of a word or phrase depends upon reading the whole statutory text, considering the purpose and context of the statute.... ”). The Plan did not abuse its discretion in determining Otto’s benefits. See McDaniel v. Chevron Corp., 203 F.3d 1099, 1113 (9th Cir. 2000).

AFFIRMED.

** This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.