Gustave D. Toensing v. E. A. Brown

Before BROWNING and CHOY, Circuit Judges, and SKOPIL , District Judge.

Plaintiffs are retired carpenters and beneficiaries under the Carpenters Pension Trust Fund for Northern California (Fund). Defendants are the Fund’s trustees. The Fund, which was established in 1958, is subject to the provisions of § 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 186 .

In the first count of their complaint, plaintiffs accuse the trustees of having violated their duty under 29 U.S.C. § 186 (c)(5), which requires that payments to such a trust fund be made “for the sole and exclusive benefit of the employees”. Specifically, plaintiffs attack as arbitrary and capricious the trustees’ decision to award a larger increase in pension benefits to active carpenters than to those retired before July 1, 1971. Plaintiffs assert that the trustees acted improperly in adopting the differential in benefits recommended by the collective bargaining parties. The second count of the complaint sets forth a pendent state claim charging that the trustees violated their fiduciary duties.

The district court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the federal claim and dismissed…