Reference no: EM133312796
Assignment:
United Artists is a corporation doing business in Texas. United Pension Fund is a defined-contribution employee pension benefit plan sponsored by United Artists for employees. Each employee has his or her own individual pension account, but plan assets are pooled for investment purposes. The plan is administered by the board of trustees. From 1977 to 1986, seven of the trustees made a series of loans to themselves from the plan. These trustees did not:
- require the borrowers to submit a written application for the loans,
- assess the prospective borrower's ability to repay loans,
- specify a period in which the loans were to be repaid, or
- call the loans when they remained unpaid.
The trustees also charged less than fair-market-value interest for the loans. The secretary of labor sued the trustees, alleging that they had breached their fiduciary duty in violation of ERISA.
1. Who won this case? Mc Laughlin v. Rowley, 69 F.Supp. 1333 (N.D. Tex. 1988) Explain your answer (you can do more research on the internet if you would like to, but please put your answers in your own way.)
Arrow Automotive Industries remanufactures and distributes automobile and truck parts. Its operating plants produce identical product lines. The company is planning to open a new facility in Santa Maria, California. The employees at the Arrow plant in Hudson, Massachusetts, are represented by a union, the United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. The Hudson plant has a history of unprofitable operations. The union called a strike when the existing collective bargaining agreement expired and a new agreement could not be reached. After several months, the board of directors of the company voted to close the striking plant. The closing would give Arrow a 24 percent increase in gross profits and free capital and equipment for the new Santa Maria plant. In addition, the existing customers of the Hudson plant could be serviced by the Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant, which is currently being underutilized.
2. What would have to be done if the plant-closing act applied to the situation? Arrow Automotive Industries, Inc. v. NLRB, 853 F.2d 233 (4th Cir. 1989).