Howse v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.

86 F. Supp. 3d 738, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161017, 2014 WL 7882997
District Court, N.D. Ohio·Decided November 17, 2014·No. Case No. 3:14CV00544·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

ORDER

JAMES G. CARR, District Judge.

This is an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and breach of contract case.

Plaintiff sues his former employers, Owens-Illinois (O-I) and Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc. (Owens-Broekway). Plaintiff alleges defendants denied him pension plan benefits in violation of ERISA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132(a)(3) & 1140 and the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. He bases his breach of contract claim on Ohio common law, asserting Owens-Brock-way violated the parties’ consulting agreement.

Jurisdiction is proper under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367(a).

Pending is defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs claims. (Doc. 10). For the following reasons, I grant the motion.

Background

In 1990, plaintiff began working for ACI Operations Pty. Ltd. (ACI), an Australian affiliate of O-I. In 2001, plaintiff transferred as an expatriate employee to Owens-Brockway, a wholly-owned United States subsidiary of O-I.1

While employed at ACI and Owens-Brockway, plaintiff was a member of ACI’s pension plan, the O-I Australian Superannuation Fund (Superannuation Fund).

Plaintiff remained on expatriate assignment until June, 2006, when he accepted a full-time position with O-I in Perrysburg, Ohio. At that point, plaintiff became an OI regular salaried employee on a U.S. payroll.

When plaintiff accepted the assignment, O-I set out the terms of his employment in an offer letter: “In light of the unique circumstances of your transfer, O-I will allow you to continue your participation in the O-I Australian Superannuation Fund. In addition, the Company will continue to make a contribution ... as if you had remained an employee of ACI Operations Pty. Ltd.” (Doc. 1, Complaint ¶ 7). Consequently, plaintiff continued his enrollment in the Superannuation Fund throughout his employment at O-I as a regular U.S. salaried employee.

The letter did not offer plaintiff enrollment in the Owens-Illinois Salary Retirement Plan (O-I Plan). The O-I Plan Summary Plan Description (O-I Plan SPD) explicitly stated the O-I Plan closed to new entrants on January 1, 2005. Plaintiff did not join O-I until June, 2006, at which point the O-I Plan had been closed to new entrants for over a year.

Although plaintiff never enrolled in the O-I Plan, New York Life, a third-party investment company, made a coding error that allowed plaintiff to log into its website and run benefits estimates as if he were a participant. As a result of the error, plaintiff also received a copy of the O-I Plan’s SPD.

On July, 16, 2012, plaintiff submitted an application for O-I Plan benefits. In a letter to plaintiff on September 20, 2012, O-I’s Defined Pension Supervisor denied the application. The letter explained the O-I Plan had already closed to new entrants when plaintiff became a U.S. salaried employee, and, as an alternative, O-I [741]*741had allowed plaintiff to continue participating in the Superannuation Fund. The letter pointed out that the information plaintiff saw on New York Life’s website resulted from New York Life coding error.

Two months later, on November 30, 2012, plaintiff voluntarily retired from O-I.

In conjunction with his retirement, on August 15, 2012, plaintiff entered into an Agreement for Consulting Services (Consulting Agreement) with Owens-Brock-way. Under the Agreement, Owens-Brockway could request that plaintiff continue to perform services on its behalf.

The terms of the Consulting Agreement allowed, absent a breach by either party, Owens-Brockway to terminate it at any time on two weeks prior written notice.

On November 19, 2012, Owens-Brock-way sent plaintiff a letter terminating the Consulting Agreement: this “will serve as notice, in keeping with the terms of the Agreement for Consulting Services ... that [Owens-Brockway] is terminating without liability the Agreement.” Owens-Brockway made no indication that the letter served as a notice of immediate termination.

After exhausting his administrative appeals at O-I to receive O-I Plan benefits, Plaintiff brought this suit. He asserts four separate causes of action.

In counts one and two of the complaint, plaintiff states defendants violated ERISA §§ 502(a)(3) & 510 when it denied him O-I Plan benefits.

Count three alleges defendants discriminated against plaintiff on the basis of age in violation of the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. § 621.

Finally, in count four, plaintiff asserts Owens-Brockway breached the Consulting Agreement by terminating the agreement without two weeks notice.

Discussion

Defendants move under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint, arguing: 1) plaintiff does not have standing as a participant in a defined benefits plan to bring claims under ERISA §§ 502(a)(3) & 510; 2) plaintiff fails to plead facts showing his ADEA claim is plausible on its face; and 3) plaintiff has not provided any plausible allegations showing how Owens-Brockway breached the notice provision in the Consulting Agreement.

“To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). When reviewing a motion to dismiss, I construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and accept all well-pled allegations as true. U.S. ex rel. Bledsoe v. Cmty. Health Sys., Inc., 501 F.3d 493, 501 (6th Cir.2007).

The Iqbal court set out a two-step analysis to determine whether a plaintiff has met the plausibility standard. Supra, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937.

First, I disregard conclusory statements in the complaint that amount to no more than “[tjhreadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action.” Id. A plaintiffs obligation “to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

Second, I review the remaining allegations, assume their veracity, and assess “whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement of relief.” Id. at 678-79, 129 S.Ct. 1937. “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the [742]

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Howse v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 86 F. Supp. 3d 738, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161017, 2014 WL 7882997 (N.D. Ohio 2014).

86 F. Supp. 3d 738 (Howse v. Owens-Illinois, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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