KENNETH HOOVER, ALBERT GUYTON and ALEX GUYER v. CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND AREA TEAMSTERS PENSION FUND; JOSEPH FRENO, JAMES HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM PETERSON AND WILLIAM LEMON, TRUSTEES OF CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND AREA TEAMSTERS PENSION FUND; WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA TEAMSTERS AND EMPLOYERS PENSION FUND (withdrawn see order of 9/17/84) and JAMES BEROS, CHARLES M. BYRNES, WILLIAM M. GHERILLA, WALTER CHRZAN, JOHN PUSKARISH, LESLIE BREMAN, JULIUS R. CASALI, JOHN W. FLANIGAN, JAMES H. HUTCHINSON, JR. and JOSEPH E. ZAUCHA, TRUSTEES OF W. PA. TEAMSTERS AND EMPLOYERS PENSION FUND (withdrawn per order of 9/17/84); Kenneth S. Hoover, et al., for themselves and the certified class, Appellants, 756 F.2d 977

Summary

Plaintiff pension fund members were unionized truck drivers. Upon their transfer to another division in the company, they became members of a different local of the same union, and joined the second union's pension plan. Plaintiffs then had accrued benefits in both plans. Long after plaintiffs' transfer, defendant trustees of the first pension plan changed the unit multiplier used to calculate pensions to a much higher rate. Defendants later amended the method to calculate partial pensions using the unit multiplier on the date of termination or transfer. Plaintiff challenged the amendment, but the district court found that the amendment did not contravene the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C.S. § 1054(g), because the partial pension benefits were ancillary, unprotected benefits. The court reversed. The court held that partial pension benefits were accrued benefits that § 1054(g) protected from reduction by plan amendment. The court found that defendants did not...