Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Liability-Safe Harbor Transactions

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: SuperValu, Inc. v. UFCW Unions and Employers Midwest Pension Fund

Case No.: 24-2486

Officials: Brennan, Chief Judge, and Hamilton and Scudder, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Liability-Safe Harbor Transactions

SuperValu, Inc. participated in a multiemployer pension plan, making contributions on behalf of its employees for more than a decade. In September 2018, the company sold several stores to Schnuck’s Markets, Inc., including five locations employing workers covered by the plan. Because Schnuck’s agreed to continue the required contributions, the sale qualified for a statutory “safe harbor,” shielding SuperValu from withdrawal liability related to those stores.

Afterward, SuperValu closed its remaining stores and completely withdrew from the plan, thereby incurring withdrawal liability. The pension fund calculated SuperValu’s total liability and corresponding annual installment payments under the statutory formula. In determining the payment schedule, the fund excluded the sold stores’ contribution base units for only the most recent five years of the ten-year lookback period. This approach increased the annual payment amount.

SuperValu disputed the calculation, asserting that the contribution base units for the stores sold should have been excluded for the entire ten-year period. The matter proceeded to arbitration under federal law, where the arbitrator ruled in favor of the fund. SuperValu then sought review in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The court granted summary judgment to the fund, finding that the statutory text did not require exclusion of the sold stores’ units for all ten years and that legislative history and statutory purpose could not override the statute’s plain meaning.

The Seventh Circuit reviewed the case de novo and found that the governing statute does not obligate pension funds to exclude contribution base units for safe-harbor sales across the full ten-year lookback period.

Affirmed.

Decided 10/09/25

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