Local 159, 342, 343 & 444 v. Nor-Cal Plumbing, Inc.

Nor-Cal Plumbing, Inc. (“Nor-Cal”), a plumbing contracting business, was a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) with Local 343 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefit-ting Industry (the “Union”). The CBA incorporated a Trust Agreement obligating Nor-Cal to make pension and welfare benefit contributions to employee benefit plans (the “Trust Funds”) 1 based on the number of hours worked by Nor-Cal’s employees.

The owner and manager of Nor-Cal, Elmar Pettit, began “double-breasting” when he opened a non-union plumbing business, North Bay Plumbing, Inc. (“North Bay”), while still maintaining Nor-Cal, which was unionized. He started transferring work from Nor-Cal to North Bay, until Nor-Cal finally stopped bidding on jobs altogether and shut down its operations in 1987.

The Trust Funds sued Nor-Cal, North Bay, Pettit and his wife Audrey Pettit (collectively the “Employers”), on the theory that the CBA covered North Bay employees because North Bay was the alter ego of Nor-Cal. The suit primarily sought to recover contributions for hours worked by North Bay employees. A jury found that Nor-Cal and North Bay were alter egos…