Haynor v. General Motors Corp.
| Decision Date | 30 March 2009 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 07-13888. |
| Citation | 606 F.Supp.2d 675 |
| Parties | Gerald A. HAYNOR, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Victor J. Mastromarco, Jr., Russell C. Babcock, The Mastromarco Firm, Saginaw, MI, for Plaintiff.
David M. Davis, Hardy, Lewis, Birmingham, MI, for Defendant.
The dispute in this case arises from the plaintiffs claim against defendant General Motors Corporation for total and permanent disability (T & PD) benefits under GM's Hourly-Rate Employees Pension Plan (HRP). Under the plan, an hourly worker may obtain such benefits if he becomes totally and permanently disabled prior to attaining age 65 and has at least ten years of credited service. The defendant's Pension Committee rejected the plaintiffs application for benefits because it found that the plaintiff had not accumulated sufficient credited service. The plaintiff does not dispute that he only actually worked as a GM hourly worker for about fourteen months; but he says he stopped working due to a work-related injury in 1978 for which he has been receiving workers' compensation benefits, and under a collective bargaining agreement in effect the plaintiff would continue to accumulate years of service while disabled. The defendant says that, according to company records, the plaintiff left employment in 1978 because he voluntarily quit, and therefore he has accumulated no credited service over the past three decades. The plaintiff filed his present complaint under section 502(a)(1)(B) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B), asking the Court to overturn the decision of GM's Pension Committee—the plan administrator of the HRP— denying T & PD benefits. The plaintiff since has filed two motions for summary judgment. GM has filed a motion for summary judgment to affirm the plan administrator's decision, arguing that the complaint is preempted by section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LRMA), 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), and the plaintiff has failed to exhaust a series of administrative remedies required under collective bargaining agreements. The parties presented oral argument on October 23, 2008. The Court now finds that the LMRA does not bar the present action under ERISA, the plaintiff has exhausted his remedies in accordance with the plan provisions, the decision of the plan administrator that the plaintiff voluntarily quit his job instead of leaving work due to a disability is arbitrary and capricious, and the plaintiff is entitled to T & PD benefits, although the amount must be calculated. Therefore, the Court will deny the defendant's motion for summary judgment, grant the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment in part, and direct the defendant to calculate the plaintiff's benefits in accordance with this opinion within sixty days.
Plaintiff Gerald Haynor, now 62, was an hourly employee at GM's now-closed Buick Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan from August 26, 1977 through October 20, 1978. The circumstances of Haynor's departure from GM are the source of the benefits dispute in the present case. Haynor asserts that he never quit his job with the company and therefore accumulated twenty-seven years of service at GM after suffering a disabling work-related injury in 1978 and winning a workers' compensation claim filed in the Michigan Department of Labor, Bureau of Workers' Disability Compensation on June 28, 1979. GM vigorously but unsuccessfully contested the worker's compensation claim through all administrative tribunals and the Michigan courts. GM, on the other hand, insists that Haynor quit his job voluntarily on October 20, 1978 "due to his failure to report to work." Mot. of GM to Affirm the Bd. of Administration's Decision [dkt. # 27], ¶ 1. In supporting this position, GM relies on the single computer entry in Haynor's employee personnel file made on October 20, 1978, which listed Haynor's employment status as "Voluntary Quit—Gave Notice." A.R. 1. The author of the computer entry in question remains unidentified.
GM has taken the position that Haynor is not eligible for T & PD benefits because he has not met the stated criteria; to be eligible, an employee would have to be "totally and permanently disabled prior to attaining age 65" and have "at least 10 years of credited service." Dep. of Preston Crabill, A.R. 259, p. 10. The defendant says that Haynor does not meet the second requirement. GM officials—James LaLonde, assistant director for arbitration on contract administration for General Motors, and Preston Crabill, director of pension plans and savings plans for GM— insist that to challenge his status as "voluntary quit," the petitioner would have to go through the grievance procedure under the 1976 GM-UAW Agreement, which was never utilized.
As an hourly employee of GM, Haynor was a member of the International Union, United Auto Workers, and the terms and conditions of his employment and benefit entitlements were governed by the GM-National Agreement and certain supplemental agreements. At the time Haynor stopped working for the defendant, the 1976 GM-UAW National Agreement was in force, so the substantive requirements for eligibility of an employee for pension benefits are contained in that Agreement and the 1976 Supplemental Agreement Covering Pension Plan, which establishes the GM Pension Plan and sets forth the procedure for administration of the Plan. A.R. 125-29. The Supplemental Agreement Covering Pension Plan, a part of the 2003 Agreement between General Motors Corporation and UAW, lays out the current procedure for exhausting administrative remedies with respect to GM pension benefits.
However, GM points to other agreements, which, it contends, must govern the procedure the plaintiff must follow for challenging the company's computer records designating him as a "voluntary quit," thereby terminating his seniority. GM insists that the plaintiff must exhaust remedies under at least two other procedures to reverse the designation before taking his claim to the Pension Committee.
The 1976 GM-UAW National Agreement is the principal agreement governing the relationship between a member of the UAW and GM. Among other things, it sets forth the seniority accumulation rules and the company's policy regarding sick leaves of absence. The Agreement states: "In compensable injury and legal occupational diseases cases, sick leave will be granted automatically and seniority will accumulate for the full period of legal temporary disability." A.R. 55.
The GM-UAW Agreement provides for a four-step grievance procedure for adjudicating employees' grievances. The employee first must take up the matter with his foreman. If the foreman does not adjust the grievance, the employee must go to the Shop Committee. The third step involves consideration by the Appeal Committee consisting of the UAW Regional Director, the UAW Chairman of the Shop Committee, and two members of local or divisional management. The final step is arbitration before an impartial umpire. 1976 GM-UAW Nat'l Agreement ¶¶ 28-55, A.R., 27-35. "There shall be no appeal from the Umpire's decision, which will be final and binding on the Union and its members, the employee or employees involved and the Corporation." A.R. 34.
Article 33 of the UAW Constitution sets forth a mandatory procedure for union members' appeals of disputes with their union:
It shall be the duty of any individual or body, if aggrieved by any action, decision or penalty imposed, to exhaust fully the individual or body's remedy and all appeals under this Constitution and the rules of this Union before going to a civil court or governmental agency for redress.
Article 33(5) of UAW Constitution, A.R. 204.
The appeals process described in Article 33 covers appeals of "any action, decision, or penalty by ... (a) The International Union, its International Executive Board or any of its Officers, Regional Directors or International Representatives; (b) Any administrative arm of the International Union ..., (c) A Local Union, or any of its units, committees, officers, committeepersons or stewards; or (d) Any other subordinate body of the International Union." Article 33(1) of UAW Constitution, A.R. 199. The process for challenging the way a union official handles a member's grievance requires an "appeal ... first to the unit of an Amalgamated Local Union, then to the Union; then to the International Executive Board and then to the Convention Appeals Committee or where appropriate the Public Review Board." A.R. 90.
The 1976 GM-UAW National Agreement contains a Supplemental Agreement Covering Pension Plan, the most recent version of which was signed on September 18, 2003. That agreement describes the HRP and related administrative procedures. Section 3(a) of the Supplemental Agreement Covering Pension Plan establishes a central Board of Administration composed of six members, "three appointed by the Corporation and three by the Union" to adjudicate employees' claims for benefits under the Plan. A.R. 125-27. The Board is directed to
work out matters such as but not limited to: (1) procedures for establishing Local Pension Committees at the Divisions or plants involved; (2) the authority and duties of such Local Pension Committees; (3) the procedures for reviewing applications for pensions; (4) the handling of complaints regarding determination of age, service credits, and computation of benefits; (5) procedures for making appeals to the Board; (6) means of verifying service credits to which employees are entitled...
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