United Steelworkers of America v. Retirement Income Plan for Hourly-Rated Employees of ASARCO, Inc.

The Retirement Income Plan for Hourly-Rated Employees of ASARCO, Inc. (the Plan) appeals from the district court’s summary judgment in favor of United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO (the Union), and twenty individually named retirees (the named appellees). The Plan also appeals from the district court’s order granting attorney’s fees and denying its motion to stay. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm the district court’s summary judgment and its denial of the Plan’s motion to stay. Although we agree with the district court’s award of attorney’s fees, we remand to determine what effect, if any, the automatic stay in place for ASARCO, Inc. (ASAR-CO) should have on payment of the award.

I.

ASARCO owns and operates a copper smelter plant in El Paso, Texas. Beginning in early 1999, the company substantially reduced operations at the plant, and began laying off employees. Among those laid off were the twenty named appellees. Under the relevant pension plan documents, these employees were entitled to collect immediate, unreduced retirement benefits if they qualified for “70/80” benefits. These benefits accrued to any claimant who could demonstrate that (1)…