- 16 - benefits which he would have received. [S. Rept. 93-383, at 45 (1974), 1974-3 C.B. (Supp.) 80, 124.5] There appears to be only one case that has addressed the issue of whether a retirement supplement is an accrued benefit for participants who retired before the supplement was added to a plan. The case of Scardelletti v. Bobo, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14498 (D. Md. Sept. 8, 1997), addressed the Transportation Communication International Union (TCU) Staff Retirement Plan (TCU plan). In 1991, the TCU plan’s former trustees recommended an automatic COLA on the basis of the advice of the plan’s former actuary. By 1993, a new actuary had concluded that the former actuary’s calculations were erroneous and that the plan could not afford an automatic COLA. The TCU Executive Council froze the automatic COLA for future service accruals for active employees, and the TCU plan’s current trustees sued the former trustees under ERISA for breach of fiduciary duty. The current trustees alleged that, by following the earlier actuary’s advice, the former trustees had significantly increased the plan’s funding requirements. The former trustees defended by arguing that the 5 Other portions of the legislative history are not particularly helpful in this case. They describe accrued benefits in terms of what they are not: “In the case of a defined benefit plan * * * The term “accrued benefit” refers to pension or retirement benefits and is not intended to apply to certain ancillary benefits, such as medical insurance or life insurance”. H. Rept. 93-807, at 60 (1974), 1974-3 C.B. 236, 295. The parties agree that the NPF COLA is a retirement benefit and not an ancillary benefit.Page: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Next
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