Trustees of Laborers Local Union 800 Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Pump House, Inc.
| Citation | 821 F.2d 566 |
| Decision Date | 14 July 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-5395,86-5395 |
| Parties | 107 Lab.Cas. P 10,054 TRUSTEES OF the LABORERS LOCAL UNION # 800 HEALTH AND WELFARE TRUST FUND, and Ann Sizemore as Administrator for the Laborers National Pension Fund, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The PUMP HOUSE, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit) |
Howard Susskind, Sugarman & Susskind, P.A., Miami, Fla., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Gary Brookmyer, Broad & Cassel, Miami, Fla., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Before RONEY, Chief Judge, VANCE, Circuit Judge, and PITTMAN *, Senior District Judge.
In July, 1982, The Pump House, Inc. began work as a subcontractor of M.R. Harrison Construction Company, installing a sprinkler system in the Sun Bank Operations Center in Dade County, Florida. On July 31, 1982, Willie Platt, business agent for the Laborers Local Union 800, approached Jose Garcia, owner of The Pump House, Inc., for the purpose of having his business sign a collective bargaining agreement with the union.
Negotiations were had between Platt and Garcia, and on August 2, 1982, Garcia signed the collective bargaining agreement and Platt countersigned on behalf of the union.
The written agreement required signatory employees to make contributions to various employee benefit funds at specified rates on behalf of all employees. Article XVI(2) delegated authority to the industry employer association to appoint employer trustees to administer these funds, jointly with the union trustees. With respect to these employer trustees, the agreement provided that by signing the agreement, each employee ratifies all acts taken by the trustees and consents to comply with all of its terms. Finally, the agreement provided for civil enforcement by the trustees, both union and employer trustees, of the employer's obligation to contribute to the Fund. It also specifically authorized the trustees to audit the employer's books and records to determine if full payment had been made.
After execution of this agreement, only three of five Pump House laborers working at the Sun Bank job joined the union. The Pump House submitted weekly reports for those three workers but only with regard to this particular work site. After the job was completed, the Pump House submitted no further reports.
Two years later, the Board of Trustees obtained an audit of the Pump House records and books. The audit, which included all Pump House employees regardless of the task they performed, found a delinquency of nearly $15,000.00, in contributions to the Health and Welfare Trust Fund.
The trustees then brought this action under Section 515 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1145, to collect delinquent employee benefit contributions pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. The Pump House raised the affirmative defense of fraudulent inducement. Over the trustees' objection, the district court heard evidence on this issue, and determined that the collective bargaining agreement was unenforceable. It then concluded that the trustees, as third-party beneficiaries of that agreement, were subject to any defense which could be raised against the union, the primary obligor. It then entered judgment in favor of the Pump House. This appeal followed.
The dispositive issue on this appeal is whether the district court erred in concluding that the defense of fraud in the inducement is available to an employer in an action by employee benefit fund trustees to collect delinquent contributions.
This action was brought by the trustees pursuant to federal substantive law. Section 515 of ERISA permits the trustees to enforce the Pump House's contractual obligation to contribute to the various plaintiff fringe benefit funds. Section 514 of ERISA provides that the ERISA statute "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they may now and hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan." Thus, ERISA Sec. 515 plainly preempts state law.
Further, appellants are trustees of multi-employer funds administered under Sec. 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act which exempts payments to bona fide trust funds from the statute's broad criminal prohibitions,...
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Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers v. C.G. Yantch, 00-CV-073.
...fraud in the inducement, Benson, 907 F.2d at 314 (citing Trustees of Laborers Local Union # 800 Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Pump House, Inc., 821 F.2d 566, 568 (11th Cir.1987)),12 which occurs when a party is induced "to assent to something he otherwise would not have," Rozay's Transfe......
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Central Pennsylvania Teamsters Pension Fund v. McCormick Dray Line, Inc.
...F.2d at 1505 (employer may not assert fraud in the inducement as a defense); Trustees of Laborers Local Union # 800 Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Pump House, Inc., 821 F.2d 566, 568 (11th Cir.1987) (per curiam) (same); Southwest Administrators, Inc. v. Rozay's Transfer, 791 F.2d 769, 775......
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Benson v. Brower's Moving & Storage, Inc.
...1154, that the employer was fraudulently induced to enter into the agreement, see Trustees of Laborers Local Union # 800 Health and Welfare Trust Fund v. Pump House, Inc., 821 F.2d 566, 568 (11th Cir.1987); Rozay's Transfer, 791 F.2d at 775, or that no contract was formed because of unilate......