Southern California IBEW-NECA Trust Funds v. Standard Industrial Electric Co.

Barry Meyer, Dan Sellers, Richard Ri-zotto (“Employees”), and Southern California IBEW-NECA Trust Funds (“Trusts”),( the administrators of several employee benefit plans associated with unions which represent employees, 1 are seeking to collect money owed for work performed on a public construction project using California’s stop notice and payment bond remedies. The district court found ERISA preempted the stop notice claim but not the payment bond claim. Both parties appeal. Because neither remedy is preempted by ERISA, we reverse the judgment below as to the stop notice claim, affirm the judgment as to the payment bond remedy, and remand.

BACKGROUND

In July 1996, the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”) hired King/ Drew High School Builders (“KDB”) as the general contractor for a public construction project (hereafter referred to as “the project”). KDB subcontracted with SSI Joint Venture (“SSI”), which is composed of Standard Industrial Electric Co. (“Standard”) and SASCO Electric (“SAS-CO”), to perform the electrical work. For labor, Standard signed a collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) with Local Union No. 11 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical…