Zarro v. Hasbro, Inc.

896 F. Supp. 2d 134, 54 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1183, 2012 WL 4801111, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145601
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedOctober 10, 2012
DocketC.A. No. 12-38L
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 896 F. Supp. 2d 134 (Zarro v. Hasbro, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zarro v. Hasbro, Inc., 896 F. Supp. 2d 134, 54 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1183, 2012 WL 4801111, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145601 (D.R.I. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

RONALD R. LAGUEUX, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment on Plaintiff Anthony Zarro’s claims that he has been wrongfully denied pension benefits in violation of the Employee Retirement Security Act, 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. (“ERISA”). Pursuant to ERISA’s Section 503, 29 U.S.C. § 1133, as well as the terms of the subject ERISA plan, Defendant Hasbro, Inc. Teamsters Pension Plan, (hereinafter the “Hasbro Plan”), Plaintiff has completed two internal appeals of his benefits denial with the Plan Administrator. He turns now to this Court with a claim brought under ERISA Section 502 “to recover benefits due to him under the terms of his plan.” 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). For the reasons explained herein, the Court affirms the Plan Administrator’s determination on Plaintiffs pension benefit calculation, but remands the dispute over the annual Christmas bonus to the Plan Administrator for further consideration.

Background

Plaintiff worked as a truckdriver for Defendant Hasbro, Inc., from 1972 until 1999, when the facility where he was employed was shuttered and Plaintiff was terminated. Throughout his tenure at Hasbro, Plaintiff was a member of a labor union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Local 251 (“the Teamsters Union”). When Plaintiff joined the Teamsters Union in 1972, he became a [137]*137participant in its pension plan, the New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund (the “Teamsters Pension Fund”). In 1989, during the course of collective bargaining between the Teamsters Union and Hasbro, Hasbro withdrew from the Teamsters Pension Fund and established a new pension plan. In accordance with the new union contract in effect from December 9, 1989 until December 8, 1992 (the “Union Contract”), Plaintiff and his co-workers became participants in the Hasbro Plan on January 1,1990.

The Preamble to the Hasbro Plan states much of what the Court has just recounted:

1.1 History of Plan: Prior to January 1, 1990, Hasbro, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”) provided retirement income to employees whose employment was covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America, through contributions to the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Plan (the “Union Pension Plan”). The collective bargaining agreement between the Company and the union, dated December 9, 1989, provides that the Company will withdraw from the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Plan. The Company has agreed to establish a pension plan for the benefit of the union employees with substantially the same eligibility and benefit schedules (subject to the exceptions and modifications thereof set forth in Article XX of the Collective Bargaining Agreement).

Article XX of the Union Contract asserted that the “Members of the bargaining unit will be entitled to a Pension Plan with the same eligibility and benefit schedules” as the Teamsters Pension Fund, but with four exceptions. One exception consisted of three amounts (or caps) for regular pension benefits “based upon 25 years of service at age 60.” These caps were $600 for those who retired during the first contract year, $615 for those who retired during the second year, and $625 for the third. Other exceptions concerned the calculation of pension credits for fractional years of service, and the elimination of the “Thirty Year Service Pension.”

Plaintiff continued working for Hasbro until 1999 when the trucking facility was closed. Plaintiff was then forty-eight years old, and had worked for Hasbro for twenty-seven years. Towards the end of 2008, Plaintiff made inquiries to both the Teamsters Pension Fund and the Hasbro Plan about his pension benefits. The Teamsters Pension Fund responded with an estimated statement indicating that Plaintiff had earned pension credits for seventeen years and five months of service (1972-1990), making him eligible, at age sixty-four, for a pension of $642.90 per month. The letter went on to explain that, “Under the present rules of the plan, you may collect a reduced pension prior to age 64. For example, you would receive a monthly benefit of $432.93 per month payable at age 58/02.”

Plaintiff submitted the Teamsters Pension Fund’s estimated statement to Hasbro, which forwarded it to an independent consultant, Watson Wyatt Worldwide. In May 2009, Plaintiff was notified by Hasbro’s vice president for employee benefits that he would be eligible, at age sixty-four, for a Statutory Pension of $468.75 per month. The letter continued,

However, the benefit from the Hasbro, Inc. Teamsters Pension Plan is offset by your pension benefit from the New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund.
The New England Teamsters has estimated that your monthly benefit at age [138]*138 61 is $612.90. Since the benefit from the New England Teamsters is larger than the benefit determined from the Hasbro, Inc. Teamsters Pension Plan; there is no benefit payable from the Hasbro, Inc. Teamsters Pension Plan.

(emphasis added).

On learning that he had worked for Hasbro an additional nine years without accruing any additional pension benefits, Plaintiff solicited the assistance of the Pension Action Center of the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts, an advocacy organization funded by the United States Administration on Aging. The Center’s managing attorney, Jeanne Medeiros, contacted Hasbro and requested pertinent information, including a copy of the Hasbro Plan.

Plaintiff’s first request for reconsideration

On March 11, 2011, Medeiros wrote to Dianne Silva, Hasbro’s director of employee benefits, requesting pension benefits on Plaintiffs behalf. This initial claim was based on the erroneous premise that Plaintiff was 59 years old when he terminated his employment with Hasbro. Based on this miscalculation, Medeiros determined that Plaintiff should be entitled to an Early Retirement Pension, rather than the Statutory Pension. Dianne Silva quickly replied, denying the claim, pointing out the appropriate Plan provisions, and drawing Medeiros’ attention to her error concerning Plaintiffs age.

Plaintiff’s appeal

On May 4, 2011, Medeiros sent her next request, identified as an appeal, to the Plan Administrator. The appeal retreated from the previous argument as to the Early Retirement Pension, but set forth two new bases for Plaintiffs claim for benefits. The first argument relied on Article XX of the 1989 collective bargaining agreement, specifically the language quoted above which stated that the new plan would have the “same eligibility and benefit schedules” as the former plan. Medeiros made no reference to the pension caps or other exceptions included in Article XX, and wrote,

Mr. Zarro agrees that his benefit is properly calculated as a Statutory Pension, as he had not attained age 52 when he left this employment in April of 1999.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
896 F. Supp. 2d 134, 54 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1183, 2012 WL 4801111, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145601, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zarro-v-hasbro-inc-rid-2012.