Bono v. Kramer
| Decision Date | 05 July 1963 |
| Citation | 191 N.E.2d 760,346 Mass. 355 |
| Parties | Jennie BONO et al. v. Luke KRAMER et al., Trustees, et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Reuben Goodman, Boston, for plaintiffs.
Edmund L. Twomey, Boston, for defendants.
Before SPALDING, WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, SPIEGEL and REARDON, JJ.
The defendants, trustees of the Local 380 Retirement Fund (the Fund), appeal from a decree ordering payment from the Fund to the three plaintiffs of $1,500 each with interest. The plaintiffs are the widow and two minor children of Frank Bono. The parties stipulated to certain facts.
Frank Bono died on March 14, 1957, after an illness which hospitalized him and precluded him from work from November 4, 1956. He had been continuously employed as a route driver by the codefendant National Dairy Products Corporation (the Company) and its predecessor, General Ice Cream Corporation, for thirty-two years. Until his death he was a member of the Milk Wagon Drivers' & Creamery Workers' Union, Local 380, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America (the Union). On or about January 28, 1957, the Company and the Union signed a contract which provided, inter alia, 'that the company shall contribute four dollars ($4.00) per week for each person employed within the categories covered within the agreement who receives compensation for the week or any portion thereof into the Local 380 Retirement Fund.' Route drivers was a category covered pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement between the Company and the Union then in existence and operation. The Fund was established by an agreement and declaration of trust dated November 30, 1956, and originally entered into by the Union and various milk firms. In accordance with the contract dated January 28, 1957, the Company and the trustees executed a counterpart of the agreement and declaration of trust effective December 15, 1956. In addition, on or about January 10, 1957, the trustees in a writing entitled, 'Local 380 Retirement Fund Rules of Eligibility,' adopted rules and regulations governing the administration of the Fund.
During the terminal illness of Frank Bono, the Company paid him a weekly sum representing the difference between his group insurance payments and 85% of his weekly earnings, contributed one half of his Blue Cross-Blue Shield payments through March, 1957, and paid its proportionate share of payments due for him under a group life insurance plan insuring employees of the Company. Throughout the period of his last illness his union dues were deducted from payments made to him by the Company and were forwarded to the Union. Until his death Bono remained an employee of the Company and had he been able to return to work would have retained his seniority rights.
The Company made its first payment to the Fund on March 15, 1957, including therein weekly payments of $4 on behalf of Frank Bono, but these payments on his account were returned by the defendant trustees of the Fund who refused to accept the payments. The reason given by the trustees for such rejection was that 'no contribution was required in behalf of any employee except that the employee had actually worked a proportion of the week or had been on vacation.' Upon his death the plaintiffs made timely application for payment of a total benefit accrual, appropriate to the decedent's years of service at death, as set forth in the Fund rule, but the trustees rejected the application.
The trust agreement provided that the Fund was to be administered by a board of six trustees, three to be representatives of the Union and three to be appointed jointly by the various employer signatories to the agreement.
It provided further:
'Article V. Plan of Benefits
'1. The Trustees shall utilize the Fund to provide retirement benefits for the members of the Union employed by an Employer who is a party hereto, which benefits may, under such rules and regulations as the Trustees may establish, be payable to dependents and beneficiaries of an employee. The Trustees shall have full authority to determine all questions as to eligibility for and the nature, amount and duration of benefits to be provided hereunder, provided however that no benefits other than retirement and death benefits may be provided under this Trust Agreement.
The rules adopted by trustees for the Fund provided in part:
'Types of Pensions, Eligibility and Amounts
* * *
* * *
'Section 2. Amount of Normal Pension
'The Normal Pension shall be a monthly annuity payable for ten years certain and life determined as the actuarial equivalent of the total benefit accrual indicated for the Employee's years of service at the time of Retirement as follows:
Years of Service Total Benefit Accrual
* * *
(hereafter the term 'Total Benefit Accrual' shall mean the amounts set forth in the above table).' 'Article III
'Payments on Death
'If before retirement an Employee dies after completing ten or more years of credited service, then the Total Benefit Accrual, appropriate to the Employee's years of service at death, shall be paid to the beneficiary under options similar to those available to an Employee at retirement.'
'Accumulation of Pension Credits
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
'(d) An employee on disability leave on the date of unit inclusion shall be deemed to be an employee within the unit on such date if reinstatement to employment is requested within one month after recovery and if such an employee when reinstated continues employment for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks.'
'Benefit Payment
* * *
* * *
'The Trustees shall be the sole judges of:
'(a) the standard proof required in any case;
'(b) the application and interpretation of these rules and regulation
'(c) entitlement to or amount of benefit
'(d) crediting of past or future service credits; and
The Company joined with other firms engaged in the distribution of milk and the Union in establishing a retirement plan for its employees in accordance with the provisions of § 302(c)(5) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c)(5). The plan...
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