Opinion ID: 775867
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The VSOP and VIP Retirees

Text: 28 Appellants quote the VSOP and VIP language at length in support of their contractual vesting claim, emphasizing that both programs' materials include a reservation of rights clause within its health insurance description but not within its life insurance description. Additionally, both documents describe life insurance benefits as a lifetime benefit. The VSOP description states: If you have at least 5 years of vested service in the pension plan and your age plus completed years of service... equal 65 or more, you are eligible for lifetime health insurance and life insurance coverage.... J.A. at 142. The VIP description states: Your insurance benefits may be extended to you for your lifetime or may be provided for an additional six months, depending on your age and years of service. You will be eligible for retiree insurance benefits if you normally qualify or if you would qualify by adding five years to your age and five years to your service under the VIP. J.A. at 167. We believe that both statements are reasonably capable of being interpreted to provide a vested lifetime life insurance benefit at the level described in the materials, so long as the VSOP or VIP retiree met the age and years of service qualifications. 29 The district court concluded that both the VSOP and the VIP materials contained a reservation of rights clause which effectively prevented any life insurance coverage from vesting. Abbruscato, 2000 WL 1585084, at -. We disagree. The VSOP provides that Empire reserves the right to amend and/or terminate the VSO Program at any time for any purpose. The Corporation also reserves the right to announce new and different plans and programs as business needs require, although there are no plans to do so at this time. J.A. at 145 (emphasis added). We do not believe that this statement unambiguously reserves Empire's right to reduce the life insurance benefits provided by the VSOP. Instead, this language is capable of being interpreted to mean that Empire merely reserved the right to change the program for those individuals who have not already retired under the terms described, not the right to alter the described benefits for those individuals who had retired under those terms. 30 The VIP document's purported reservation of rights is even less compelling. That document states: Empire reserves the right to amend and/or withdraw the VIP at any time for any purpose with respect to any employee, up to the date on which that employee's Resignation and General Release and Covenant Not to Sue becomes effective. Empire also reserves the right to announce new and different plans and programs as business needs require. J.A. at 170 (emphasis added). By its own terms, Empire's purported right to amend the VIP expired for these retirees. Further, Empire's ability to announce new and different plans in the future does not affect the terms under which these appellants retired. 31 Because the statements in the VSOP and VIP describing the lifetime benefits are susceptible to interpretation as a promise of vested benefits, and because neither the VSOP nor the VIP contain unambiguous reservation of rights clauses, we vacate the district court's grant of summary judgment to Empire and remand for further proceedings. Additionally, because we conclude that the VSOP and VIP documents are ambiguous, we instruct the district court to allow the parties to present extrinsic evidence concerning the meaning of these ambiguous provisions. See Kunkel, 274 F.3d at 84-85 (citing Bidlack v. Wheelabrator Corp., 993 F.2d 603, 609 (7th Cir. 1993) (en banc) (Posner, J.)).