Opinion ID: 1236180
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right of Action

Text: Vanguard argues that we lack subject-matter jurisdiction over the Funds' suit. That cannot be right, unless the suit is so frivolous that it does not engage the power of the court. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 89, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998), citing Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 682-83, 66 S.Ct. 773, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946). It is possible, however, that these parties might not have a right of action under the statute; if so, their suit is barred at the threshold. Two provisions of ERISA, §§ 502 and 515, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132 and 1145, are relevant here. Section 1145 supplies the substantive right that the Funds seek to enforce: Every employer who is obligated to make contributions to a multiemployer plan under the terms of the plan or under the terms of a collectively bargained agreement shall, to the extent not inconsistent with law, make such contributions in accordance with the terms and conditions of such plan or such agreement. Section 1132(e) complements § 1145 by authorizing certain parties to enforce the substantive right. It empowers various parties to bring actions under ERISA, including the Secretary of Labor or a participant, beneficiary, or fiduciary of a plan. The plaintiff Funds are employee benefit plans, to which § 1132(d)(1) gives the right to sue or be sued under [ERISA] as an entity. We have found that such employee benefit plans may bring suit in federal court under § 1332(e). See Peoria Union Stock Yards Co. Retirement Plan v. Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 698 F.2d 320, 326 (7th Cir.1983); see also Laborers' Pension Fund v. Blackmore Sewer Construction, Inc., 298 F.3d 600 (7th Cir.2002) (affirming result in suit brought by fund for unpaid monies under § 1145 where claim was alleged under § 1132); Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund v. Kroger Co., 226 F.3d 903 (7th Cir.2000) (same). Notwithstanding this apparent source of authority to sue, Vanguard submits that the Funds' action has been foreclosed by Laborers Health & Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. Advanced Lightweight Concrete Co., Inc., 484 U.S. 539, 108 S.Ct. 830, 98 L.Ed.2d 936 (1988). There, an employees' trust fund wanted to bring an action under § 515 of ERISA to recover contributions to employee benefit plans that the employer refused to pay after the expiration of the CBA that governed the contributions. The duty to continue making post-contract contributions during a status quo period that the trust fund sought to enforce derives from the duty to bargain in good faith under § 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act: The duty to bargain and to refrain from instituting unilateral changes in wages and working conditions under section 8(a)(5) normally outlives the parties' CBA. An employer is required to `maintain the status quo after the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement until a new agreement is reached or until the parties bargain in good faith to impasse.' General Service Employees Union v. NLRB, 230 F.3d 909, 913 (7th Cir.2000) (quoting NLRB v. Emsing's Supermarket, 872 F.2d 1279, 1285 (7th Cir.1989) (quotations omitted)); see also NLRB v. Katz, 369 U.S. 736, 82 S.Ct. 1107, 8 L.Ed.2d 230 (1962). In Advanced Lightweight Concrete, the Supreme Court held that § 515 does not give rise to any federal right to have an employer make post-contract contributions while negotiations are ongoing; the question there was whether a charge that a refusal to make pension contributions during a status quo period violated the NLRA was exclusively within the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board. See 484 U.S. at 546-48, 108 S.Ct. 830. Questions involving an employer's promised obligations to a employee benefit planthat is, their obligations under the terms of the plan or under the terms of a collectively bargained agreement are not excluded from scope of the statute, nor are they matters within the exclusive jurisdiction of the NLRB. Unlike the plaintiff trust fund in Advanced Lightweight Concrete, the Funds here do not rely on any alleged statutory duty Vanguard might have to continue contributing during the post-contract status quo period. Instead, the Funds claim only that Vanguard has violated a contractual duty stemming from the participation agreements. Because this contract relates to a welfare benefit plan governed by ERISA, the lawsuit falls within the federal question jurisdiction of the court.