mPension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 1200 K Street, N.W., Washington. D.C. 20005-4026 Pa- - www.pbgc.gov 

MAY 1 2 2005 

Re: ~ethlehem Steel Corporation Pension Plan, Case # 196603 

The Appeals Board has reviewed your appeal of PBGC's January 26,2004 determination 

that you are not entitled to a Permanent Incapacity (disabi1ity)pension under the Bethlehem Plan. 

For the reasons discussed below, the Board changed PBGC's determination by finding that you 

are entitled to Permanent Incapacity Retirement. PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment 

Department, the organization responsible for calculating and paying benefits, will send you a new 

determination of your benefit amount and annuity starting date, with a new 45-day appeal right. 

PBGC's Determination and Your Auveal 

PBGC's letter told you that, to qualify for a disability pension under the Bethlehem Plan, 

a participant must have completed at least 15 years of continuous service and have been deemed 

disabled by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on or before December 18,2002, the date 

the Plan terminated. PBGC said you were not entitled to a disability benefit because, according 

to the information you provided, SSA denied your claim for disability. PBGC's letter also noted 

that you are entitled to a regular retirement benefit under the Plan. 

You said in your appeal that you were in the Merchant Marine working on a ship owned 

by Bethlehem Steel. After you had your second heart attack on October 13, 2002, you were 

immediately discharged &om your vessel, sought medical treatment as soon as you returned home, 

and had your thud heart surgery on December 20,2002. Although you planned on returning to 

work, you said your doctors would not authorize it and suggested you file for Social Security 

Disability Insurance Benefits. SSA initially denied your claim and you filed an appeal. On 

November 24,2004, SSA's Office of Hearings and Appeals decided that you were disabled under 

their rules beginning 

Permanent Incauacitv 

The Bethlehem Plan terminated, effective December 18,2002, without ~~cient assets to 

provide all benefits PBGC guarantees &der ~itle IV of the ~m~lo~ee~etirement ~ncome Security 

Act (ERISA). The terms of the Plan, the provisions of ERISA, and PBGC regulations and policies 
determine your entitlement to a guaranteed benefit. PBGC's regulations require that, to be entitled 

to a guaranteed benefit, a participant must satisfy the conditions of the plan necessary to establish 

the right to receive the benefit as of the date the plan terminated. 

Under section 2.5 of the 1999 Bethlehem Plan for the Steel Division, there are two 

conditions that a participant must meet to be eligible for the Plan's Permanent Incapacity 

retirement: (1) the participant must have at least 15 years of continuous service and (2) the 

participant must be "permanently incapacitated." Plan section 2.5 provides that a participant is 

considered permanently incapacitated only if -- 

(a) he has been totally disabled by bodily injury or disease so as to 

be prevented thereby &om engaging in any employment of the type 

normally performed in his employee category; and 

(b) such total disability shall have continued for a period of [five] 

consecutive months and, in the opinion of a qualified physician, will 

be permanent and continuous during the remainder of the 

Participant's life. 

Please note that this defmition of permanent incapacity is not the same as SSA's disability 

definition nor is an SSA disability award a prerequisite for the Plan's disability pension. 

Accordmg to the files PBGC's auditors obtained from the prior Plan Administrator, you 

worked as a Wheelsman on vessels operated by Bethlehem's Great Lakes Steamship Division until 

October 6, 2002. The files show you were an active employee with more than 15 years of 

continuous service as of December 18,2002, the date the Plan terminated. 

To be eligible for the Plan's permanent incapacity retirement, your disability must be both 

total and of such severity that it prevented you &om "engaging in any employment of the type 

normally performed in [your] employee category" on or before December 18, 2002. You 

submitted anumber of documents with your appeal, including extensive medical records from the 

years 1993.through 2004. These records show a progressively deteriorating heart condition. 

You suffered your first heart attack in 1993, which required heart surgery in 1993 and again 

in 1994. You returned to work after recovering fiom these surgeries and continued working fulltime for Great Lakes until you suffered a second heart attack about October 6, 2002. Your 

cardiologist, said in a October 29, 2002 letter to your primary care 

physician that he had advised you not to return to your job until a fmal decision was made 

"regarding angiography andlor intervention and there is stabilization of your symptoms." The 

record shows you underwent major heart surgery on December 20,2002. 

Your appeal included copies of three insurance application forms, dated May 27,2003, 

June 14,2003 and May 19,2004, on which pdicated that you were totally and 
permanently disabled beginning October 29,2002. You also submitted aBethlehem Steel Medical 

Examiner's Report prepared bybn June 25,2003, on which he certified that 

the earliest date you were totally and permanently disabled was October 29, 2002. 

The Appeals Board found that the medical evidence you submitted shows that, beginnimg 

October 29,2002, you could not have performedthe duties of the type normally performed in your 

employee category. As a result, the Board found that you met the requirements for permanent 

incapacity under Plan section 2.5 and are, therefore, entitled to a permanent incapacity pension. 

Company records also show that you began receiving Sickness and Accident benefits under 

Bethlehem's Social Insurance Plan (SIP), effective October 29,2002. Please note that participants 

cannot receive both a permanent incapacity pension fiom the Bethlehem Pension Plan and a SIP 

benefit at the same time. 

Decision 

Having applied the law, the provisions of the Plan and PBGC policy to the facts in this 

case, the Appeals Board found that you are entitled to apermanent Incapacity Retirement. We will 

forward a copy of this letter to PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment Department, who 

will send you a new determination of your benefit amount and annuity starting date, with a new 

45-day appeal right. They will also calculate any backpayments PBGC owes you and pay that 

amount in a single lump sum with interest. 

Meanwhile, if you have questions, please call PBGC's Customer Contact Center at 1-800- 

400-7242. 

Sincerely, 

Linda M. Mizzi 

Member, Appeals Board