Smarra v. Boilermaker-Blacksmith Nat'l Pension Trust

584 F.Supp.3d 21

Sean SMARRA, Plaintiff,

v.BOILERMAKER-BLACKSMITH NATIONAL PENSION TRUST, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 2:20-cv-860

United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.

Signed February 8, 2022

Michael Balzarini, Balzarini & Watson, Pittsburgh, PA, for Plaintiff.

Nathan A. Kakazu, Pro Hac Vice, Blake & Uhlig, P.A., Kansas City, KS, Neil J. Gregorio, Tucker Arensberg, Pittsburgh, PA, for Defendants Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust, Board of Trustees of Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WILLIAM S. STICKMAN IV, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Sean Smarra ("Smarra") filed a two-count Complaint against Defendants Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust and the Board of Trustees for the Boilermaker-Blacksmith National Pension Trust (collectively "Boilermakers") asserting a wrongful denial of benefits claim pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1132 and a breach of fiduciary duty to a pension trust participant claim pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1104. (ECF No. 1, pp. 10, 16). Smarra and Boilermakers filed competing motions for summary judgment. (ECF No. 50); (ECF No. 53). For the following reasons, the Court will enter summary judgment in Smarra's favor.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Smarra was employed as a boilermaker until he was injured. After sustaining his injury, Smarra applied for a disability pension from Boilermakers. Smarra's application was accepted, but he contends that the monthly pension amount he is receiving is substantially less than what he is entitled to. The reduction in benefits is due to an amendment to the Pension Trust Plan that was adopted by Boilermakers. Smarra alleges Boilermakers breached its fiduciary duty owed to him because Boilermakers failed to adequately inform him of the amendment and provided inaccurate and misleading information about making a claim for benefits.

On December 4, 2016, a substantial reduction of disability pension benefits was proposed to the Boilermaker Executive Committee. (ECF No. 52, pp. 11-12); (ECF No. 62, p. 11). The proposed benefit reduction was adopted as "Amendment No. 4" at a subsequent meeting on January 25, 2017. The effective date of Amendment No. 4 was October 1, 2017. Amendment No. 4 reduced disability pension benefits for those participants not yet being paid by .5% per month, for each month the participant was under the age of 65, up to a maximum reduction of age 55 (10 years).

Additionally, under the policies applied by Boilermakers, payment of benefits could only begin one month after the receipt of an application for benefits and only if the application was post-marked or received before the fourteenth day of the preceding month. (ECF No. 52, pp. 12-13); (ECF No. 62, p. 12). Hence, to not be affected by Amendment No. 4, a participant had to submit or post-mark their disability benefit application by August 14, 2017.

Smarra was born in 1972. After graduating high school and attending two semesters of college, Smarra entered the Boilermakers's apprentice program in 1993 and he completed it in 1997. (ECF No. 52, p. 1); (ECF No. 62, p. 1). Smarra worked through the Boilermakers Local 154 union hall and became a participant in the Boilermaker Pension Trust. (ECF No. 52, p. 2); (ECF No. 62, p. 1). Beginning in 1995, participating employers for whom Smarra worked began making contributions based upon hours worked by Smarra to the Boilermaker Pension Trust.

In December 2014, Smarra was injured by an assailant who struck him in the face with a 40-ounce bottle. Smarra sustained severe facial lacerations and a closed head injury. He was unable to work for a period of time and upon returning, Smarra experienced difficulty with dizziness and blurred vision. (ECF No. 52, p. 3); (ECF No. 62, p. 3). Two years after the attack, in December 2016, Smarra was advised by his physicians and Local 154 officials that he should no longer work as a boilermaker due to his continued dizziness. In the same month, Smarra consulted an attorney and applied for Social Security disability benefits. Smarra was not immediately advised whether the claim was accepted by the Social Security Administration. (ECF No. 52, p. 4); (ECF No. 62, pp. 3-4).

Additionally, Smarra consulted his family and other co-workers regarding the steps to obtain a disability pension from Boilermakers. (ECF No. 52, pp. 3-4); (ECF No. 62, p. 3). Throughout his employment as a boilermaker, Smarra accumulated over 24,381 credited hours and 750 of those came in 2016, the year in which he became disabled. (ECF No. 52, p. 2); (ECF No. 62, p. 2). Smarra was mailed annual pension statements by Boilermakers advising him that his pension benefits had "vested" and that upon retirement he would be entitled to a specified monthly benefit. In the statement mailed to Smarra dated December 16, 2016, the "Monthly Amount Payable to You " was in the amount of "$3,803.59." (ECF No. 52, p. 2); (ECF No. 62, p. 2).

On March 16, 2017, Smarra contacted Boilermakers via telephone and spoke to a pension specialist¹ representative named Stacy Higgins ("Higgins") to discuss filing for a disability pension. During the phone call, Smarra told Higgins that: (1) he could no longer work as a boilermaker; (2) that he had not previously spoken to the Boilermaker Plan nor received a disability pension application from them; and (3) that he had applied for Social Security Disability within the past few weeks but had not yet received a decision from the Social Security Administration. (ECF No. 52, pp. 4-5); (ECF No. 62, p. 4). Smarra contends that he informed Higgins that he wished to file for a disability pension. Boilermakers contests this fact and instead states Smarra said "I just wanted to know how I could figure out how much I would be getting a month." (ECF No. 52, p. 5); (ECF No. 62, p. 4). Smarra did not explicitly say he wished to file for a disability pension, but the transcript of the March 16, 2017 phone call indicates that Higgins understood this was Smarra's intention. (ECF No. 56-16). Further, Smarra was sent a letter and Pension Retirement Packet² dated March 17, 2017, that acknowledged his request for such materials. (ECF No. 56-18).

Higgins then went on to inform Smarra that "the disability pension from the Boilermakers is based on your eligibility with Social Security." Higgins also explained that the Boilermakers needed a copy of the Notice of Award issued by the Social Security Administration "because we need to know your date of entitlement and your date found disabled ... [ ] ... to determine your eligibility ...." Higgins further stated that an application could be sent out to Smarra along with a tentative estimate based on a "default" date of disability in order to "get the process started," but that the disability amount might have to be adjusted later when the Notice of Award was received. (ECF No. 52, pp. 5-6); (ECF No. 62, pp. 4-5).

Higgins did not inform Smarra that the Boilermaker Pension Trust provisions regarding the amount of disability benefits had been recently amended and that, as a result, benefits would be substantially reduced. Nor did she inform Smarra that if he failed to submit his Disability Pension Application to Boilermakers by August 14, 2017, his disability benefits would be reduced by approximately 60%. (ECF No. 52, p. 14); (ECF No. 62, p. 13). This was not an inadvertent omission. Beth Racki, the Director of Pension Operations for Wilson McShane Corporation, testified that Wilson-McShane personnel were told of the amendment to the Boilermaker Pension Trust around the time it was adopted in January 2017 and that the specialists would have received written details on the subject. The record confirms that Higgins was aware that the Boilermaker Pension Trust had been amended to substantially reduce disability benefits for any participant who was not yet receiving benefits by October 1, 2017. (ECF No. 52, pp. 13-14); (ECF No. 62, p. 13). However, Wilson-McShane employees were affirmatively instructed not to raise or discuss the upcoming changes with participants who contacted the Boilermaker Pension Trust and were further instructed that they were not to respond to questions on the subject.³ (ECF No. 52, p. 15); (ECF No. 62, p. 13).

At the conclusion of the conversation, Higgins advised Smarra that when he received his Notice of Award, "... you will need to provide it with a pension application." (ECF No. 52, p. 6); (ECF No. 62, p. 5) (emphasis added). This instruction was consistent with other written materials provided to Smarra from Boilermakers. Smarra received a letter with his Pension Retirement Packet that quoted the following language from Section 4.09 of the Pension Plan:

A Participant shall be entitled to a Disability Pension if he is totally and permanently disabled prior to attaining the age of 65 provided he:

(a) Has been awarded a Social Security Disability Benefit under Title II of the Social Security Act ... [ ] ...; and ...

(d) Has filed a written application for Benefits with the Fund Office ... [ ] ... together with a notice of award of disability benefits from the Social Security Administration .... (emphasis added).

(ECF No. 56-18, pp. 2-3). Additionally, the Summary Plan Description document provided to Smarra, dated July 2016, included the following instructions pertaining to the submission of a Disability Pension Application:

You are Required to Provide the Following Information

Your application must include proof of your age and marital status. We may need additional information, depending on the type of benefit and form of payment you elect. The following table describes the documents required for various forms of benefit payment. If you do not provide necessary documents, your application and claim for benefits will be denied.

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[Editor's Note: The preceding image contains the reference for footnote⁴ ].

(ECF No. 56-4, p. 16). Boilermakers also provided Smarra with written Pension Application Instructions and a Pension Application. The...