Payonk v. HMW Industries, Inc.

883 F.2d 221, 1989 WL 95741
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 23, 1989
DocketNo. 88-1577
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 883 F.2d 221 (Payonk v. HMW Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Payonk v. HMW Industries, Inc., 883 F.2d 221, 1989 WL 95741 (3d Cir. 1989).

Opinions

OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

GARTH, Circuit Judge:

This appeal, which arises from two corporate reorganizations and the consequent termination of a pension plan, requires us to answer the question: do pension plan fiduciaries have a duty under § 404 (29 U.S.C. § 1104) and § 406 (29 U.S.C. § 1106) of the Employee's Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to notify the former members of a plan who now claim an interest in a plan surplus, of a termination of the plan prior to the ten day requirement of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)1 regulations found at 29 C.F.R. 2616 et seq.l We conclude that in the circumstances presented here, no notification was required beyond the 10-day notice mandated by the regulation.2

The district court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment and denied the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment, holding that the duties embodied in § 404 and § 406 did not apply to HMW’s business decision to terminate the pension plan. We affirm.

I.

The plaintiffs, represented by John J. Hamilton and Paul L. Payonk (“Payonk”), consist of a class of employees or former employees of Hamilton Precision Metals (“Metals”) and of Wallace Silversmiths, Inc. (“Wallace”) who withdrew from a defined benefit pension plan shortly before its termination and, therefore, did not share in the distribution of the surplus of the Plan. The defendants, HMW Industries, Inc., Hamilton Technology, Inc., Clabir Corp., Bernhardt, Kenneth R., Strantz, Gloria G., and Clarke, Henry D., Jr., are alleged to have breached their fiduciary duty by failing to inform Payonk of the impending plan termination and by self-dealing.3 The relevant facts, none of which are in dispute, have been detailed by the district court in its Memorandum and Order of June 27, 1988. We reproduce the pertinent portions of that recital supplemented by additional facts disclosed in the record.

Prior to August 5, 1983, Wallace, Ham-Tech and H-K Exchange, were wholly owned subsidiaries of HMW. The employ[223]*223ees of these subsidiaries, including Metals, were participants in the HMW plan, an overfunded pension plan that was funded by both employer and employee contributions. On August 5,1983, Katy Industries, a corporation not a party to this action, acquired Wallace and Metals from HMW. As a result of this divestiture, Wallace and Metals employees were no longer considered employees of HMW under the terms of the HMW plan and could no longer accrue benefits under the Plan. However, the divestiture did not affect benefits that had already accrued to those employees and they were entitled to withdraw their accumulated employee contributions with interest at anytime. During the fall of 1983, HMW arranged with Connecticut General Life Insurance Company to purchase annuities covering the accrued benefits of the Wallace and Metals HMW plan participants.

On October 25, 1983, in response to several requests from Wallace and Metals employees, defendant Strantz wrote to each Wallace and Metals employee stating the amount of employee contribution that each could withdraw from the HMW plan. Strantz’s letter explained further that the employees had the option of withdrawing their employee contributions from the HMW plan immediately or leaving their contributions in the plan until regular retirement age. This letter did not inform plaintiffs that they could share in any surplus should the HMW plan be terminated if they left their contributions in the plan until termination. Only a few employees withdrew their contributions during the last few months of 1983.

On February 1, 1984, Wallace announced its new employee benefits package. The new package included a Guaranteed Retirement Income Plan pursuant to which the employees would be guaranteed payments at retirement at least as high as those they would have received as HMW plan participants. To be eligible for the new plan, all employees had to roll over their employee contributions from the HMW plan to the Wallace Plan. Hartford Life Insurance Co., the administering company of the new plan, also agreed to guarantee a 12.75% interest rate on the rolled over funds for the first five years. To take advantage of this guaranteed interest rate, however, the employees had to roll over their HMW contributions within a limited specified period.

A similar announcement was made by Metals on February 23, 1984, followed by a confirming letter to the employees dated March 1, 1984. The new Metals plan offered the same plan and 12.75% interest rate opportunity as the Wallace plan. Both Wallace and Metals management encouraged their employees to roll over their HMW contributions to the new plans. These announcements were followed by mass withdrawals from the HMW plan.

Soon after Katy Industries acquired Wallace and Metals. Defendant Clabir obtained a controlling interest in HMW. Cla-bir’s Director of Administration, Richard Van Hoesen, was directed to bring the HamTech (HMW’s remaining subsidiary) retirement program into conformity with the Clabir Plan which was an employer contribution plan rather than a matched employer-employee plan. In order to do so it appeared that the old HMW Plan would have to be terminated.

On December 19, 1983 Van Hoesen received a copy of a letter from James M. Schell, his supervisor at Clabir, addressed to John L. Owen, the Human Resources Supervisor at HamTech, directing that preparation should begin in the process of terminating the HMW Plan. Although termination was still tentative, it was apparently Schell’s intention to get the administrative process started. On January 5, 1984, representatives of Clabir met with representatives of HamTech and Connecticut General Life Insurance Company to discuss the possible termination of the HMW plan and its replacement with a new retirement plan patterned after the plans at other Clabir subsidiaries. Because of the matters raised at the meeting, the tentative target date of February 1, 1984 for the termination of HMW’s plan was pushed back to March 1, 1984. After a number of meetings, the resolution of certain logistical problems and three changes in the proposed termination date, the HMW [224]*224Board of Directors passed a resolution on March 7, 1984 terminating the HMW plan effective March 31, 1984.

In accordance with regulations promulgated by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), defendant Strantz sent out a package of letters dated March 12y 1984 to Wallace and Metals for distribution to employees notifying them of the decision to terminate the HMW plan. These letters were accompanied by notices of termination dated March 14, 1984. HMW filed its notice of termination with the PBGC on March 21, 1984. The PBGC ultimately approved the termination effective March 31, 1984. PBGC approval for the termination of the old HMW Plan took fourteen months and was issued in May, 1985. It was then that management learned that only those employees who were still participants in the old HMW Plan on the March 31, 1984 termination date were entitled to share in the distribution of the plan surplus.

In 1985, surplus plan assets were distributed in part to plan participants whose contributions remained in the HMW plan and in part to HMW.

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Bluebook (online)
883 F.2d 221, 1989 WL 95741, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payonk-v-hmw-industries-inc-ca3-1989.