616
Opinion of the Court
A
1
Concrete Pipe and its amici point to several potential sources of trustee bias toward imposing the greatest possible withdrawal liability. The one they emphasize most strongly has roots in the fact that "all of the trustees, including those selected by employers, are fiduciaries of the fund, 29 U. S. C. § 1002(21)([A]), and thus owe an exclusive duty to the fund." Id., at 139 (emphasis omitted). As we said in another case discussing employee benefit pension plans permitted under LMRA:
"Under principles of equity, a trustee bears an unwavering duty of complete loyalty to the beneficiary of the trust, to the exclusion of the interests of all other parties. To deter the trustee from all temptation and to prevent any possible injury to the beneficiary, the rule against a trustee dividing his loyalties must be enforced with 'uncompromising rigidity.'
. . . . . "In sum, the duty of the management-appointed trustee of an employee benefit fund under § 302(c)(5) is directly antithetical to that of an agent of the appointing party. . . . ERISA essentially codified the strict fiduciary standards that a § 302(c)(5) trustee must meet. [Title 29 U. S. C. § 1104(a)(1)] requires a trustee to 'discharge his duties . . . solely in the interest of the participants [i. e., covered employees] and beneficiaries.' " NLRB v. Amax Coal Co., 453 U. S. 322, 329-332 (1981) (citations and footnote omitted).
The resulting tug away from the interest of the employer is fueled by the threat of personal liability for any breach of the trustees' fiduciary responsibilities, obligations, or duties, 29 U. S. C. § 1109, which may be enforced by civil actions brought by the Secretary of Labor or any covered employee or beneficiary of the plan, § 1132(a)(2).
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