ERISA – Fringe Benefit Payments

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters Pension Fund, et al v. Schal Bovis, Inc.

Case No.: 14-3413, 14-3336

Officials: FLAUM, MANION, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: ERISA – Fringe Benefit Payments

Respondent not liable for contributions for work performed due to single employer status of Canac with another entity and because of limiting provisions of Agreement.

“The Funds attempted to counter this evidence by presenting thirteen letters of assignment from three contractors which purportedly assigned the work of installing stainless steel kitchen equipment to the Union. The Funds’ submission is insufficient to counter Schal Bovis’s evidence for a number of reasons. First, it is debatable whether the affiant through whom the letters were introduced based his statements on personal knowledge as required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(4). Second, none of the thirteen letters assigned the work of installing stainless steel kitchen equipment. One of the letters, from 1994, assigned the work of installing “counter tops/shelving/kitchen equipment,” but it does not state whether the work involved stainless steel equipment. Dist. Doc. 29 at 60. The remaining letters, which were dated 2010 or undated, either assigned only the loading and unloading of stainless steel kitchen equipment or the installation of “owner supplied equipment and fixtures.” Id. at 48–61. Finally, it does not matter whether the Union has been assigned the installation of stainless steel kitchen equipment in the past or is assigned such work presently. It does not even matter whether the work is exclusively the work of the Sheet Metal Workers, which the Union disputes. What matters is whether it is the existing practice of the Sheet Metal Workers to install stainless steel kitchen equipment. It is undisputed that the work is the existing practice of the Sheet Metal Workers. Consequently, the limiting provision of Section 1.1 of the Agreement prevents the Funds from demanding contributions for the work in the Edward Don claim”

Reversed and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.