Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-23-2004

Abstract

The plaintiff-appellant, Alan Arnold ("Arnold"), individually and doing business as McCauley Trucking Company, appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Amon, J.), dismissing, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, Arnold's complaint (i) alleging that defendants-appellants, the trustees and fiduciaries of the Local 807 Labor-Management Pension Fund, unlawfully denied Arnold pension benefits and (ii) seeking various forms of legal and equitable relief therefor. On appeal, Arnold contends, inter alia, that the District Court erred in concluding "that Arnold was not an employee as defined by ERISA";[1] "that he maintained a plan that was not an employee benefit plan under ERISA"; and, therefore, that subject matter jurisdiction was lacking.

For the reasons that follow, we find that the District Court erred in focusing entirely on the wrong question. The question of primary jurisdictional significance is not whether Arnold was an "employer," which implicates his ability to establish an employee benefits plan under ERISA, but whether the pension benefits plan maintained by the trustees of the Local 807 Labor-Management Pension Fund is an ERISA-protected employee benefits plan, pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1003(a). We conclude that it is. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of the District Court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.2]

Comments

392 F.3d 512 (2004) Alan ARNOLD, Individually, and Alan Arnold, doing business as McCauley Trucking Company, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

Harvey C. LUCKS, as Trustee and Fiduciary of the Local 807 Labor-Management Health & Pension Funds, John M. Zak, as Trustee and Fiduciary of the Local 807 Labor-Management Health & Pension Funds, Anthony Storz, as Trustee and Fiduciary of the Local 807 Labor-Management Health & Pension Funds, Daniel Gallo, as Trustee and Fiduciary of the Local 807 Labor-Management Health & Pension Funds, and William Turis, as Trustee and Fiduciary of the Local 807 Labor-Management Health & Pension Funds, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 04-0313-cv. United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: October 6, 2004.

Decided: December 23, 2004.

New York Law School location: Box # 149, File # 3321

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