Nat’l Shopman Pension Fund v. DISA Industries, Inc.

Dist. Ct. erred in dismissing plaintiff's ERISA action alleging that defendant-employer was in default for failing to pay full amount of revised withdrawal liability assessment after defendant had announced intention to withdraw from multi-employer pension plan. Dist. Ct. improperly concluded that defendant's failure to exhaust its administrative remedies by submitting to arbitration dispute as to actual amount of revised assessment was immaterial under circumstances where plaintiff-plan had also not sought arbitration of said issue. Accordingly, defendant's failure to seek arbitration on revised assessment calculation and its failure to pay full amount of revised assessment constituted default and operated as forfeiture of its opportunity to dispute amount of revised assessment, as well as precluded Dist. Ct. from finding that plaintiff made wrong calculation in revised assessment.