Opinion ID: 2998293
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Urbania’s Employment History and On-the-Job

Text: Injuries Plaintiff Matthew Urbania took on various jobs in the Ohio Teamster Industry for intermittent periods of time between 1965 and 1981. During those periods, he was a Fund participant, and his employers made contributions on his behalf to Central States accordingly. In 1981, however, Urbania was laid off from covered Teamster employment (Halls Motor Transit) and moved to Florida. Since 1981, Central States has not received any contributions on the 2 (...continued) Pension Fund are made or required to be made on his behalf . . . in accordance with the rules and regulations of this Plan and Trust Agreement.” 6 No. 04-4267 plaintiff’s behalf. As it stands today, based on his total time in covered employment, Urbania has accrued 9.839 years of credited service3 and 11 years of vesting service.4 After leaving covered employment in early 1981, Urbania took on various jobs between 1981 and 1986 for non-union employers, none of which participated in Central States. He suffered two on-the-job injuries while working those noncovered jobs. The first injury occurred on June 21, 1982, while he was working with Page Avjet Corporation. He tripped and fell in the cockpit of an airplane, hurting his back. The second injury occurred on October 16, 1986, when, in the course of his employment with D.J.’s Drywall Inc., he tripped and hurt his back while lifting drywall. On both occasions, the plaintiff filed and settled worker’s compensation claims—the Page Avjet settlement netting him $12,250 in December 1983, and the D.J.’s Drywall settlement bringing in $82,004.30 in June 1989. He was also awarded three periods of disability by the Social Security Administration—the first from June 1982 to 3 There is some discrepancy in the record as to whether the number of credited service years that the plaintiff has accrued totals 9.825 or 9.839. As this opinion will make clear, the discrepancy is inconsequential, as both numbers fall short of the requisite ten-year minimum for a disability pension—a number that all parties concede Urbania has failed to reach. For purposes of consistency, and in keeping with our obligation in reviewing summary judgment to resolve all genuine issues of material fact in the non-moving party’s favor, see Telemark Dev. Group, Inc. v . Mengelt, 313 F.3d 972, 976 (7th Cir. 2002), we will use the higher figure. 4 The plaintiff ’s 11 years of vesting service qualified him under the Plan for a Vested Pension in the amount of $103.83 per year for life starting at age 58. He remains qualified for, and will, when he reaches 58 years, receive, this pension. The Vested Pension is not here a subject of dispute. No. 04-4267 7 December 1983, the second in November 1986, and the third beginning June 1988. C. Urbania’s Application for a Central States Disability Pension On February 4, 1998, Urbania filed an Application for a Disability Pension with Central States, claiming under oath that he became totally disabled as a result of a job related injury on June 21, 1982. He further claimed that he had not been able to work since that date. The application listed no employment after June 1982, and suggested that “Worker’s Compensation Disability” had sustained him in the interim. In addition, several documents from the Social Security Administration were submitted in support of Urbania’s application. One such document was an Award Certificate dated July 12, 1988, denoting November 1986 as his date of entitlement to Social Security disability benefits. Another was a Notice of Favorable Decision and a Decision dated October 11, 1990, finding Urbania disabled under the Social Security Act and entitled to a period of disability commencing on June 1, 1988. However, the October 11, 1990 Decision, as well as several documents attached thereto, indicated that Urbania was able to, and in fact did, return to work after his June 1982 injury—notwithstanding his disability pension application’s claim to the contrary. The decision noted that after his 1982 back injury, Urbania “eventually returned to work.” Indeed, along with medical records detailing medical advice rendered to Urbania encouraging him to return to work within specified physical limits, documents revealed that Urbania had taken on jobs as a janitor (for four to five months in 1984), a long-distance trucker (sometime before August 12, 1986), and a drywall hanger (sometime before October 16, 1986). In addition, Social Security records indicated that the plaintiff received income after his 1982 8 No. 04-4267 injury from various sources, including Lodge No. 1851 of the Loyal Order of the Moose in Sanford, Florida (1984); Alexander-Seewald Co. in Marietta, Georgia (1985); Eagle Pools in Granite Falls, Washington (1985); and, of course, D.J.’s Drywall in Winter Park Florida (1986). The record also includes Urbania’s Worker’s Compensation Notice of Injury, which he filed after the October 1986 accident to claim on the injury he suffered while working as a drywall hanger with D.J.’s Drywall. Central States ultimately denied Urbania’ application for a disability pension, finding that he failed to establish that he was totally and permanently disabled before sustaining three consecutive one-year breaks in service. Though Urbania claims to have been disabled as of June 1982, the defendant, noting in particular the evidence of Urbania’s odd jobs between 1982 and 1988, found the disability was not total and permanent until June 1988. And because, in the eyes of Central States, Urbania’s disability was not total and permanent until 1988, he had clearly sustained three consecutive one-year breaks in service—namely, 1982, 1983, and 1984, the three years immediately succeeding his last year of covered employment (1981). Though the issue of Urbania’s insufficient years of credited service (having only 9.839 when he needed 10) was also at issue from the outset of his application—indeed, Urbania and his union even went so far as to inquire whether Central States might allow him to cure this disqualifying deficiency—the defendant did not list this as a reason for denying plaintiff’s application in its final decision on review. After exhausting administrative appeals of the defendant’s decision, Urbania filed this action before the district court. The district court granted summary judgment in the defendant’s favor, finding that the defendant trustee’s decision to deny the disability application was not arbitrary No. 04-4267 9 and capricious. In particular, the court found that Urbania failed (1) to meet the requirement of 10 years credited service (having accrued only 9.839 years) and (2) to establish that he was totally and permanently disabled before sustaining three consecutive one year breaks in service because, in spite of his claimed June 1982 disability onset date, he had worked other jobs thereafter. Urbania appeals.