Reyes v. Bakery & Confectionery Union

170 F. Supp. 3d 1239, 62 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1468, 2016 WL 1109308, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37221
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 22, 2016
DocketCase No. 14-cv-05596-JST
StatusPublished

This text of 170 F. Supp. 3d 1239 (Reyes v. Bakery & Confectionery Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reyes v. Bakery & Confectionery Union, 170 F. Supp. 3d 1239, 62 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1468, 2016 WL 1109308, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37221 (N.D. Cal. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

ECF No. 73

JON S. TIGAR, United States District Judge

Before the Court is Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. ECF No. 73. Plaintiffs oppose the motion. ECF No. 79. The Court will grant the motion in part and deny it in part.

I. BACKGROUND

This is a putative class action under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“PPA”), challenging an amendment to the “Golden 80” and “Golden 90” adjustable benefits by the Bakery and Confectionary Union and Industry International Pension Fund (the “Pension Fund”), a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan. First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), ECF No. 44 ¶ 1.

This is the second time that the Pension Fund has attempted to implement such an amendment. The Pension Fund’s first attempt, in July 2010, was invalidated by a district court in New York, which found that the amendment violated ERISA’s “anti-cutback rule.” See In re Bakery and Confectionery Union and Indus. Int’l Pension Fund Pension Plan, 865 F.Supp.2d 469, 474 (S.D.N.Y.2012), aff'd Alcantara v. Bakery and Confectionery Union and Indus. Int’l Pension Fund Pension Plan, 751 F.3d 71 (2d Cir.2014). “With few exceptions, the ‘anti-cutback’ rule of [ERISA] prohibits any amendment of a pension plan that would reduce a participant’s ‘accrued benefit.’ ” Cent. Laborers’ [1242]*1242Pension Fund v. Heinz, 541 U.S. 739, 741, 124 S.Ct. 2230, 2234, 159 L.Ed.2d 46 (2004) (citing 88 Stat. 858, 29 U.S.C. § 1054(g)).

The Pension Fund argues that this second attempt is valid under the PPA’s provisions regarding funds that have been certified as being in “critical” status.

A. 2010 Amendment and New York Case

Plaintiffs, and the other class members, are participants in the Pension Fund. FAC ¶ 4. The Pension Fund covers tens of thousands of participants throughout the U.S. Id. ¶26. Defendants include the Pension Fund, its Board of Trustees, and individually named Trustees. Id. ¶¶ 15-17.

A participant in the Pension Fund with at least twenty-five years of service is typically eligible to retire with full benefits at age 65. Certain employers offered participants a subsidized early retirement benefit called the “the Golden 80” and “the Golden 90” plans. Id. ¶ 29. Under those plans, a participant was eligible to receive full retirement benefits if her combined age and years of service were equal to 80 or 90. Id.

The amendments at issue concern a participant’s ability to “age into” the Golden 80 and Golden 90 plans. Id. ¶ 31. Prior to the amendments, participants could leave their employment before the sum of then-age and service equaled 80 or 90 years, but could later “age into” receiving the full benefits when the sum reached 80 or 90. Id. For example, a participant could retire at age 58 with 20 years of service, and then begin to receive full benefits two years later under the Golden 80 Plan upon turning 60 (i.e., 60 + 20 = 80). The amendment at issue in this case eliminated the ability to “age into” the Golden 80 and Golden 90 plans. Id. ¶¶ 33, 44.

The Pension Fund previously attempted to implement an identical amendment in July 2010. FAC ¶ 33, 44. Various participants filed lawsuits in federal court in New York, challenging the amendment on grounds that it violated 29 U.S.C. § 1054(g), ERISA’s anti-cutback rule. Id. ¶ 34. On June 6, 2012, the New York district court held that the Fund’s 2010 amendments violated ERISA’s anti-cutback provision and entered judgment against the Fund on November 11, 2012. Id. ¶¶ 42, 45; see also In re Bakery and Confectionery Union, 865 F.Supp.2d at 475-76. The Second Circuit affirmed. Al-cantara v. Bakery and Confectionery Union and Indus. Int’l Pension Fund Pension Plan, 751 F.3d 71 (2d Cir.2014).

B. 2012 Amendment

While litigation was still ongoing in the New York case, the Pension Fund’s actuary, The Segal Group, certified the Fund as being in “critical status” under the PPA on March 30, 2012. ECF No. 73 at 6. On April 27, 2012 the Fund sent out a Notice of Critical Status to participants, reporting that there were funding problems and advising that the Fund might adopt a rehabilitation plan that would reduce or eliminate- certain benefits. FAC ¶¶ 38, 39. The Notice of Critical Status listed the Golden 80 and 90 plans as possible candidates for elimination. Id. ¶ 39.

On November 7, 2012, four days before the New York district court entered judgment, the Fund adopted a Rehabilitation Plan. Id. ¶ 43. The Rehabilitation Plan stated, among other things, that participants’ ability to age into the Golden 80 and 90 plans would be eliminated as of April 30, 2012. Id. ¶ 44. The Plan explained that this change was identical to the 2010 amendment except that it would be effective on April 30, 2012 instead of July 1, 2010, as previously proposed. Id. On November 14, 2012, the Fund issued a notice to employers, union representatives, and participants describing the reductions contained in the Rehabilitation Plan. Id. ¶ 46.

[1243]*1243Defendants allege that the new amendment, unlike the 2010 amendment, is valid because it was implemented in accordance with the PPA. ECF No. 73 at 7. The PPA was created, in part, to address “the problems associated with underfunded pension plans,” and “introduced a number of mechanisms aimed at stabilizing pension plans and ensuring they remain solvent.” Trustees of Local 138 Pension Trust Fund v. F.W. Honerkamp Co., 692 F.3d 127, 130 (2d Cir.2012). Among the PPA’s provisions are “measures designed to protect and restore multiemployer pension plans in danger of being unable to meet their pension distribution obligations in the near future.” Id. Under the PPA, a pension plan may be certified as “endangered” if it is less than eighty percent funded, or as “critical” if it is less than sixty-five percent funded. Id. The PPA assigns the responsibility of certifying the financial status of the fund to the plan’s actuary. 29 U.S.C. § 1085(b)(3). If a fund is designated as being in “critical status,” then the fund sponsor must adopt a rehabilitation plan. Id. at § 1085(e)(3). ERISA’s anti-cutback rule, 29 U.S.C. § 1054(g), would typically preclude many benefit changes, but a provision of the PPA provides an exception that permits reductions of “adjustable benefits” when a fund is in critical status. See 29 U.S.C. 1085(e)(8).

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170 F. Supp. 3d 1239, 62 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1468, 2016 WL 1109308, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reyes-v-bakery-confectionery-union-cand-2016.