Mitchell v. Mobil Oil Corp.
| Decision Date | 16 February 1990 |
| Docket Number | 89-1085 and 89-1111,89-1031,Nos. 89-1019,s. 89-1019 |
| Parties | 52 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 374, 52 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,658, 58 USLW 2500, 11 Employee Benefits Ca 2633 Porter H. MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. MOBIL OIL CORPORATION, a New York corporation; Retirement Plan of Mobil Oil Corporation; and Trustees of the Retirement Plan of Mobil Oil Corporation, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees. Erisa Industry Committee and Association of Private Pension and Welfare Plans, Amici Curiae. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Rodney Patula (Thomas L. Roberts, Peter H. Ziemke, W. Randolph Barnhart, and Peter W. Pryor, with him on the briefs) of Pryor, Carney & Johnson, Englewood, Colo., for plaintiff-appellee/cross-appellant.
Michael E. Tigar of the University of Texas Law School (Steven J. Merker of Davis, Graham & Stubbs, Denver Colo., and Loren Kieve, Standish F. Medina, Jr., and Jonathan E. Richman of Debevoise & Plimpton, Washington, D.C., with him on the brief), Austin, Tex., for defendants-appellants/cross-appellees.
Harris Weinstein, John M. Vine, and Dwight C. Smith III of Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae Erisa Industry Committee.
Paul J. Ondrasik, Melanie Franco Nussdorf, Suzanne E. Meeker, and Theodore E. Rhodes of Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, D.C., for amicus curiae Ass'n of Private Pension and Welfare Plans.
Before MOORE and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and DAUGHERTY, District Judge. *
In this case, the Mobil Oil Corporation and one of its former employees, Porter Mitchell, dispute whether changes which Mobil made in its employee benefit plan violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. Secs. 621-634, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. Secs. 1001-1461. At trial, Mr. Mitchell succeeded on his age-discrimination and ERISA claims. Mobil challenges the results below, claiming that Mr. Mitchell did not meet his burden of proof on the age-discrimination claim and that he did not have standing to seek relief under ERISA. We agree with Mobil and reverse.
Until 1977, Mobil provided retirement benefits only in the form of an annuity. In 1977, Mobil added a "lump-sum option" to its retirement plan, the terms of which, for the purposes of this case, appear in the Retirement Plan of Mobil Oil Corporation as of January 1, 1984 (the Plan). Under the Plan, an employee could elect to receive a lump-sum payment which had the same equivalent actuarial value, discounted at 5%, as the annuity. In the case of early retirement, the Plan reduced the lump-sum payment by 5% for each year of retirement prior to the age of sixty. To qualify for the lump-sum option, an employee had to elect this option prior to retirement; had to be over fifty-five; and, at the date of his retirement, had to have a net worth of at least $250,000 or an accumulated lump sum in excess of $250,000.
In February 1984, Mobil amended the lump-sum option. It raised the discount rate prospectively from 5% to 9.5% and increased the eligibility threshold from $250,000 to $450,000. It also linked the new threshold to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), projecting a rise in the threshold to correlate with a rise in the CPI. These changes, however, would not take effect until at least six months after Mobil announced them, pending approval by the IRS. The delayed effective date gave employees who were eligible for the lump-sum payment under the old criteria, but who might not meet the new threshold, the opportunity to decide whether to retire and take the lump sum or to continue working and accumulating more pension benefits with the possibility that they might not accumulate sufficient additional benefits to meet the new threshold requirement at the date of their retirement.
Porter Mitchell was one of Mobil's employees who had to make such a choice. He was fifty-six at the time Mobil amended the eligibility criteria for the lump-sum option and had elected to take this option instead of the annuity. He was clearly eligible for the lump-sum option under the $250,000 threshold but was uncertain whether he would be able to meet the $450,000 threshold since it could rise, prior to his retirement, with changes in the CPI. This choice was important to Mr. Mitchell because at the time he was making it, the market interest rate was over 9%. As a result, his lump sum, discounted at 5%, was worth approximately 140% more than his annuity.
At trial, Mr. Mitchell claimed that by forcing him to make this choice, Mobil had willfully violated the ADEA since it had, in effect, constructively discharged him because of his age. He also claimed that Mobil had breached its fiduciary duties under ERISA and that it had violated ERISA's anti-cutback provision, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1054(g), by retroactively limiting his right to the lump-sum option, an accrued benefit. The age-discrimination and ERISA claims were tried jointly before a jury, though, the trial court reserved for itself a decision on the ERISA claims.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of Mr. Mitchell, awarding $405,962.76 in back-pay damages; $86,000 as compensation for the 20% reduction in Mr. Mitchell's lump-sum benefit; and, $96,740.82 in front-pay damages. Because the jury found that Mobil's violation of the ADEA was willful, the trial court awarded Mr. Mitchell $405,962.76 in liquidated damages as well. The court rejected Mr. Mitchell's claim for prejudgment interest on his ADEA claim. The trial court also ruled in favor of Mr. Mitchell on his ERISA claims, awarding him $588,703.58 in compensatory damages and $405,962.76 in liquidated damages. Mobil appeals both the jury's verdict and the trial court's judgment. Mr. Mitchell cross-appeals the trial court's measure of damages.
The ADEA prohibits an employer from "discharg[ing] any individual or otherwise discriminat[ing] against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's age." 29 U.S.C. Sec. 623(a)(1). To establish a prima facie case of age discrimination by constructive discharge, an employee must prove that his "employer by its illegal discriminatory acts has made working conditions so difficult that a reasonable person in the employee's position would feel compelled to resign." Derr v. Gulf Oil Corp., 796 F.2d 340, 344 (10th Cir.1986). An employee who claims that an offer of early retirement constitutes age discrimination by constructive discharge can meet this burden by demonstrating that the offer "sufficiently alters the status quo that each choice facing the employee makes him worse off" and that if he refuses the offer and decides to stay, his employer will treat him less favorably than other employees because of his age. Bodnar v. Synpol, Inc., 843 F.2d 190, 193 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 260, 102 L.Ed.2d 248 (1988). An early retirement program which requires an employee to make the difficult choice between retirement with the receipt of previously unavailable incentives and continued work under the same conditions, however, does not result in constructive discharge because the employee is no worse off whichever option the employee chooses. Henn v. Nat'l Geographic Soc'y, 819 F.2d 824 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 964, 108 S.Ct. 454, 98 L.Ed.2d 394 (1987); Schuler v. Polaroid Corp., 848 F.2d 276 (1st Cir.1988).
Mobil claims that since Mr. Mitchell did not establish a prima facie case of age discrimination by constructive discharge, the trial court erred in rejecting its motion for a directed verdict on the ADEA claim. We will reverse the trial court's denial of a motion for a directed verdict only if, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, the evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom point but one way, in favor of the moving party. Zimmerman v. First Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 848 F.2d 1047, 1051 (10th Cir.1988).
Mobil first contends that the trial court erred in denying its motion for a directed verdict because Derr precludes recovery for violations of the ADEA absent a showing that an employer subjected its employee to difficult or intolerable working conditions. 796 F.2d at 344. Mr. Mitchell himself admitted at trial that his working conditions were not unpleasant, that he was well regarded by his superiors, and that he enjoyed his work at Mobil. The fact that Mr. Mitchell was happy at Mobil and worked harmoniously with his colleagues and superiors, however, does not preclude a finding that Mobil's offer of early retirement constituted age discrimination by constructive discharge. The relevant question in this case is whether Mobil's amendment of the Plan forced Mr. Mitchell, and similarly situated employees, to choose between two options both of which would leave him worse off than the status quo.
Mobil contends that it did not confront Mr. Mitchell with such a choice. Instead, it gave him an extra benefit unavailable to employees under the age of fifty-five, the choice to elect the lump-sum option at the $250,000 threshold. Mobil's argument is disingenuous. Its program, unlike that in Henn, 819 F.2d at 826, did not give Mr. Mitchell a choice between the receipt of a previously unavailable early retirement incentive and the continuation of work under the status quo which preceded the offer of early retirement. Instead, Mobil created a choice between two options either of which would leave Mr. Mitchell worse off than he had been prior to the change in the Plan. One choice would permit Mr. Mitchell to retire by February 1, 1985, at the age of fifty-six, and receive the lump-sum option under the old eligibility criteria. Prior to Mobil's amending the Plan, however, Mr. Mitchell could have worked until the age of sixty-five and still remain eligible for the lump-sum option under...
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