Nauman v. Abbott

Dist. Ct. did not err in entering judgment in favor of defendant-employer in action by plaintiffs- former employees alleging that defendant violated section 510 of ERISA by terminating them through spin off of one of defendant’s divisions and creating separate company that in turn re-hired plaintiffs, where said spin off, along with defendant’s policy of not re-hiring plaintiffs for period of time, had improper effect of ridding defendant of unwanted pension liability to plaintiffs. Record supported Dist. Ct.’s determination that employee pension benefits played no role in decision to spin off division and create separate company, and defendant presented evidence to support notion that no re-hire policy was put into place to prevent plaintiffs from obtaining both pension from defendant as well as full salary from new company for doing same job that they performed prior to reorganization. Moreover, plaintiffs failed to establish breach of fiduciary duty claim where record showed that defendant truthfully reported to plaintiffs that their pension benefits might change after reorganization.