Bolton v. Construction Laborers' Pension Trust For Southern California

943 F.2d 1117 Annie M. BOLTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONSTRUCTION LABORERS' PENSION TRUST FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA; Louie Bravo; Donna Davidson; Roger Jaska; Robert Kruse; Armando Lopez; William Middleton, Defendants-Appellees. No. 90-55654. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted June 4, 1991. Decided Aug. 30, 1991. Ronald Dean, Pacific Palisades, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant. John S. Miller, Jr., Cox, Castle & Nicholson, Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before FLETCHER, CANBY and BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judges. CANBY, Circuit Judge: 1 Annie Bolton (Bolton), widow of plan participant Levi Bolton, appeals from a summary judgment in favor of Construction Laborers' Pension Trust for Southern California (Plan). The Plan denied benefits to Bolton because Levi's pension rights had not fully vested at the time he suffered a break in service. Bolton contends that application of the break-in-service rule in this case is arbitrary because Levi's break was involuntary and he later returned to covered employment, working enough additional years to satisfy the vesting…