Roark v. Lewis

• Decision Date: 21 August 1968
• Docket Number: No. 21208-21210.,21208-21210.
• Citation: 130 US App. DC 360,401 F.2d 425
• Parties: Taylor ROARK, Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees. Maude W. REESE, Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of Joe S. Rees(e), Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees. Theo R. FULLER, Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

130 US App. DC 360, 401 F.2d 425 (1968)

Taylor ROARK, Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees.

Maude W. REESE, Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of Joe S. Rees(e), Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees.

Theo R. FULLER, Appellant, v. John L. LEWIS et al., Appellees.

Nos. 21208-21210.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued February 16, 1968.

Decided August 21, 1968.

Petition for Rehearing Denied October 10, 1968.

Mr. Julian H. Singman, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. Orlin L. Livdahl, Jr., Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellants.

Mr. Harold H. Bacon, Washington, D. C., with whom Messrs. Welly K. Hopkins and Joseph T. McFadden, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellees.

Before BAZELON, Chief Judge, and BURGER and TAMM, Circuit Judges.

TAMM, Circuit Judge:

The three appellants are retired coal miners. They applied to the appellees, trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund of 1950, for pensions. When their applications were denied, they filed suit in the District Court seeking damages, an order compelling their enrollment as beneficiaries of the Fund and injunctive relief. Cross motions for summary judgment were made, appellees' motion was granted and this appeal was taken.

Appellant Roark worked in the coal industry thirty-nine years. He was employed for eleven years by coal operators who were, during those years, contributing to the Fund. After the eleven year period, he was employed by a non-contributing operator for two years. Appellant Rees¹ worked in the coal industry forty-two years. He was employed nine years by operators who were contributing to the Fund during the time they employed him. After the nine year period, he was employed by non-contributing operators for twenty-two months. Appellant Fuller worked in the coal industry twenty-nine years. He was employed fourteen years by coal operators who were contributing to the Fund during the time they employed him. After the fourteen year period, he was employed by non-contributing operators for twenty-three months. Each application was denied because the applicant's last regular employment in the industry was not with a contributing operator — a requirement imposed, in the trustees' view, by Resolution 56, as amended by Resolution 57.²

I

The Fund was established by the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 186(c) (5) (1964). That statute explicitly casts authority to create such a fund in trust terms, consequently the scope of court review of trustees' action has been defined as one of determining whether their action was arbitrary or capricious. If it was, then potential beneficiaries of the trust may justly complain that they were entitled to have a higher standard of conduct exercised on their behalf. Kosty v. Lewis, 115 U.S. App.D.C. 343, 346, 348, 319 F.2d 744, 747, 749 (1963).

The 1950 agreement provides that the trustees "shall have full authority * * with respect to questions of coverage and eligibility. * * *" Joint Appendix at 33. The specific eligibility requirement, promulgated by the trustees under that authority and relied upon by them in denying each of the applications here is as follows: "An applicant shall be eligible for a pension if he has: * * * Permanently retired from and ceased work in the Bituminous Coal Industry after May 28, 1946, following regular employment * * * as an employee of an operator signatory to the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, as amended. * * *" (Emphasis supplied.) We first address ourselves to the contention that the trustees' interpretation of this eligibility requirement is arbitrary and capricious.

The trustees interpret the resolution as requiring an applicant's last employment in the industry to have been with a signatory employer; that "following" signatory employment means retirement must come "immediately after" such employment. Appellants contend that that interpretation is an unreasonable one because "following" means "after," but not "immediately after." Webster, New International Dictionary 981 (Unabr. ed. 1950) defines "following" as: "1. Next after; succeeding; ensuing; as, the assembly was held on the following day." Despite this clear meaning which supports the trustees, appellants argue that the trustees themselves must not have thought the language meant what they say it means, because in Resolution 63 (adopted later and not applicable here) they changed the language to read "immediately following." We are unable to fault the trustees for attempting to increase the clarity of an eligibility requirement, even though we think the meaning of the present language is plain. Thus, we conclude the trustees' interpretation is a patently reasonable one and that it falls short of arbitrary or capricious conduct.

II

We turn now to appellants' argument that if the trustees' interpretation is lawful, the requirement itself is not. While the trustees have broad discretion in setting eligibility requirements, there are obvious limits. Applicants could not, for example, be denied pensions because of their race or religion. See generally Steele v. Louisville & N. R. R., 323 U.S. 192, 208, 209, 65 S.Ct. 226, 89 L.Ed. 173 (1944) (Opinion of Mr. Justice Murphy, concurring). Although none of the reported cases we have found which deal with UMW pension applications has directly confronted the question of court review of eligibility requirements,³ we see no reason why the previously announced standard (to determine whether the trustees' conduct was arbitrary or capricious) should not apply. Trustees' action in prescribing eligibility requirements affects the rights of potential beneficiaries in the same vital way as do other trustees' actions.

Trusts of the kind here involved, established under a specific exception to the Taft-Hartley Act, are hybrids which do not fit the categories of ordinary trusts. See Restatement (Second) of Trusts § 375, comment g (1959). While the specific beneficiaries are unnamed, characteristic of a charitable trust, the funds which make up the res were not paid to the trust as acts of beneficence. They were paid to the trust to satisfy a contractual duty owed by signatory operators to the signatory union and the employees it represented. Lewis v. Benedict Coal Corp., 361 U.S. 459, 465-466, 80 S.Ct. 489, 4 L.Ed.2d 442 (1960); Lewis v. Owens, 338 F.2d 740, 742 (6th Cir. 1964). When the trust was first established, of necessity, most applicants had worked the bulk of the required time before signatory operators had begun paying into the trust a stipulated price per ton of coal mined. Without intimating that those early applicants were the recipients of charity, it is nevertheless clear that the longer an applicant has worked for contributing employers, the more direct connection there is between his labor and the sums paid to the trustees on his behalf.

Appellants have demonstrated the peculiarities of the attacked requirement — that an employee's last regular employment before retirement be with a signatory operator. Under the requirement, employees could spend, as appellants did, practically their entire adult lives working for mine owners who had contributed to the Fund since its inception; yet if they were to work for a non-signatory operator for any period after leaving a signatory operator, they would forfeit their otherwise valid pension claims. Conversely an applicant could have worked nineteen of the required twenty years in the industry for a non-signatory operator (who had contributed nothing to the Fund) and still be eligible for a pension if only he worked his last regular employment for a contributing operator.

The purposes stated in the 1950 agreement include: "to make payments from principal or income or both, of (1) benefits to employees of said signatory operators * * *." (Emphasis supplied.) Further, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c) (5) (1964) provides that authorized trusts must be created "for the sole and exclusive benefit of the employees * * *" of contributing employers. The trustees rely on the statutory language as a basis for the contested requirement. They argue that applicants must be employed by signatories when they cease work or the requirement that...