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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.
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