On April 15, 2022, participants in the U.A. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 Pension Fund filed a petition for panel and en banc rehearing of the Second Circuit’s ruling in favor of the pension plan’s decision to retroactively require plan participants to choose between either ceasing their post-retirement employment or foregoing early retirement benefits. See Metzgar v. U.A. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 22 Pension Fund, No. 20-3791, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 5466 (2d Cir. Mar. 2, 2022), and our previous article on that decision.
In 2013, certain plan participants brought suit against the pension fund itself, the Board of Trustees, and the plan administrator, in her individual capacity, alleging that the plan’s reinterpretation of the conditions of “retirement” breached ERISA fiduciary duties to plan participants and unlawfully denied benefits. The plaintiffs also argued that having to choose between continued employment and receiving their pensions violated ERISA’s anti-cutback provision in that the reinterpretation of the plan subsequently decreased their amount of accrued benefits.
In March 2019, Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio from the Western District of New York recommended granting summary judgment to defendants, focusing on the plan’s discretionary authority provision and finding that the plan’s reinterpretation was based on a reasonable belief that the provision violated IRS rules. Judge John Sinatra adopted that recommendation and granted summary...
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has rejected claims that he has withdrawn or rescinded the gazetted renaming of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town, along with other geo...