Board of Trustees of the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund v. Stanley L. Lafrenz Anita Lafrenz

This case involves the withdrawal liability imputed to the owners of a commonly controlled unincorporated sole proprietorship under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.

In 1981, Lewiston Pre-Mix Concrete, Inc. (Pre-Mix) withdrew from the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Plan, a mul-tiemployer plan established under ERISA, incurring “withdrawal liability” in excess of $130,000. In 1986, Pre-Mix declared bankruptcy and, as a result, the Teamsters Pension Plan received only $216.73 of the withdrawal liability. Subsequently, plaintiff-appellee, the Board of Trustees of the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund (Fund), filed this action against defendants-appellants, Stanley and Anita Lafrenz, for the outstanding withdrawal liability. The Lafrenzes own 96% of the outstanding shares of Pre-Mix. In addition to their ownership of Pre-Mix, the Lafrenzes own and lease for profit two Mack dump trucks. The district court ruled that the Lafrenz truck-leasing operation was a “trade or business” under ERISA and that the truck-leasing operation and…