Carpenters Health & Welfare Trust Fund v. Parnas Corp.

On this appeal by several plaintiffs whom we shall for brevity and convenience characterize as the Funds, from a judgment of dismissal of their action seeking foreclosure of a lien under Civil Code section 3111, following a successful demurrer to their complaint by defendant Parnas Corporation, the only question may reasonably be stated as:

Is California’s provision for an action to enforce the state’s Civil Code section 3111 preempted, and thus nullified, by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, commonly known as ERISA?

We respond negatively to the question and reverse the judgment. Our reasons follow.

The material factual-procedural context of the case is uncontroverted. We relate it.

Parnas Corporation, the owner of a parcel of Santa Clara County real property, had employed a contractor to perform some carpenter work upon it. The contractor was obligated under a collective bargaining agreement to, but did not, make specified payments to the Funds for fringe benefits of the individual carpenters employed by him. Such payments, when made, are in effect part of the carpenter’s total wage package, which part is credited to him on the books of the…