A multiemployer plan that prevails in an action to collect delinquent contributions or withdrawal liability is statutorily entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs “of the action.” In International Painters &...more
A federal district court in Illinois became the first court to rule that an employer’s credit for a prior partial withdrawal should be applied at the end of the statute’s “waterfall” for calculating withdrawal liability. The...more
Holding a settlement agreement was a revised withdrawal liability assessment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected a group of dairy companies’ petition to dismiss a pension fund’s claim to enforce a $39...more
We recently reported on a district court decision holding that the Central States Pension Fund’s calculation of withdrawal liability should not have included contribution rate increases imposed after the Fund’s implementation...more
On April 24, 2025, the Seventh Circuit upheld a Northern District of Illinois decision requiring a multiemployer pension plan to exclude the employers’ post-2014 rehabilitation plan contribution rate increases from the...more
A recent case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Local No. 499, Board of Trustees of Shopmen's Pension Plan v. Art Iron, Inc., et al., 177 F. 4th 923 (6th Cir. 2024), clarifies a significant legal...more
“Withdrawal liability” blindsides many employers when they stop contributing to collectively bargained pension plans. Multiemployer plans have used different calculations for years that inflate the withdrawal liability they...more
A recent ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit serves provides a valuable reminder for multiemployer pension funds and contributing employers regarding ERISA’s withdrawal liability notice and demand...more
In July, the Third Circuit upheld a District of New Jersey decision to throw out a withdrawal liability assessment, finding the multiemployer pension fund was barred from pursuing its claim because the fund unreasonably...more
On March 29, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued its decision in Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Event Media, Inc. In a matter of first impression for...more
Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court’s decision upholding an arbitration award requiring an employer to pay more than $2.3 million in...more
Grajales v. Commissioner - In Grajales v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed whether the ten percent exaction under Section 72(t) (Exaction) is considered a...more
On October 14, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the federal agency that insures and regulates private-sector defined benefit pension plans under Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of...more
In a prior alert, we detailed how the Interim Final Rule (IFR) from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) regarding the special financial assistance (SFA) provided under American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) would...more
On July 6, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued the Final Rules (Final Rules) implementing the Special Financial Assistance Program (SFA) enacted by Congress as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On July 8, 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) published its final rule (“Final Rule”) on the Special Financial Assistance (“SFA”) Program established under the American Rescue Plan Act...more
On January 31, 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s finding that surcharges imposed by the Pension Protection Act (“PPA”) are excluded from the determination of an employer’s “highest contribution rate” for...more
On January 27, 2022, in New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund v. C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., the Second Circuit joined the Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits in applying the doctrine of successor...more
In Sofco Erectors, Inc. v. Trustees of the Ohio Operating Engineers Pension Fund (“Sofco”) (September, 28, 2021), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long awaited decision regarding the appropriateness of interest...more
On September 28, 2021, in Sofco Erectors v. Trustees of the Ohio Operating Engineers Pension Fund, No. 20-3639/3671, 2021 BL 367718 (6th Cir. Sept. 28, 2021), the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the first major appeals...more
In a major win for the Steelworkers Pension Trust (SPT), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld an award totaling $96 million in withdrawal liability and additional statutory penalties against the Renco Group,...more
As we previously reported, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) created a special financial assistance program that is administered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (“PBGC”) and intended to extend the...more
The federal agency overseeing voluntary private defined benefit pension plans just issued its Interim Final Rule on how withdrawal liability will be impacted by the billions of dollars that will be paid to failing...more
Multiemployer pension plans are collectively bargained defined-benefit employee benefit plans that are funded by several unrelated employers for the benefit of unionized employees. In recent years, the crisis of significantly...more
Many employers in the retail, construction, service, entertainment, manufacturing and transportation industries contribute to multiemployer defined benefit pension plans (MEPs) on behalf of their unionized employees. A large...more