Manuel Mora, on His Own Behalf and on Behalf of All Persons Similarly Situated v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California

Opinion by Judge NOONAN; Dissent by Judge PREGERSON.

Manuel Mora and the class represented by him (collectively Mora) appeal the judgment of the district court denying credits for hours of service giving rise to additional pension benefits from the defendant, Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California (the Pension Trust). Mora contends that contributions made to the Construction Laborers’ Trust for Southern California (the Vacation Trust) should generate the service credits. The district court ruled that ERISA did not require the contributions to count toward service credits and granted summary judgment to the Pension Trust. We affirm. Doing so, we dispel a confusion largely caused by a name.

FACTS

The Pension Trust is the product of collective bargaining between the Southern California District Council of Laborers together with affiliated local unions and the Southern California Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America together with other associations of contractors. The Pension Trust was established on October 16, 1962. Its terms are set out in over 90 typed pages. Article IX provides for its amendment by the trustees. It has been amended 55…

dissenting:

Department of Labor regulations allow employees to count hours of paid vacation as “hours of service,” the currency in which hours are counted for pension purposes. The majority holds that construction laborers cannot count their vacation benefit as “hours of service,” because their vacation benefit comes from a trust fund as a lump sum of money, not from an *1125 employer as a set amount of vacation time. I cannot support this outcome.

The crux of my disagreement with the majority comes down to whether the payments union members receive from the vacation trust are vacation benefits intended to approximate “traditional” paid vacations received by employees in other industries, or whether the vacation trust is an involuntary savings plan akin to a “Christmas Club.” I believe the vacation trust documents are clear on this point. Article II of the Trust Agreement states that the trust fund is intended as “a fund for the payment of paid vacations.” The summary plan document circulated by the vacation trust fund to union members touted this program as a “vacation check” that “materially assists [an employee] in defraying the expenses of a vacation should [the employee]…

435 F.3d 1121 Manuel MORA, on his own behalf and on behalf of all persons similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONSTRUCTION LABORERS PENSION TRUST FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, Defendant-Appellee. No. 04-55594. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted December 5, 2005. Filed January 25, 2006. Richard A. Weinstock and Andrew T. Koenig, Ventura, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant. John S. Miller, Herbert J. Klein, and Dwayne P. McKenzie, Los Angeles, CA, for the defendant-appellee. Donald J. Capuano, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae, National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; James V. Selna, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-03-00471-JVS. Before PREGERSON, NOONAN, and THOMAS, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge NOONAN; Dissent by Judge PREGERSON. NOONAN, Circuit Judge. 1 Manuel Mora and the class represented by him (collectively Mora) appeal the judgment of the district court denying credits for hours of service giving rise to additional pension benefits from the defendant, Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California (the Pension Trust).…