Opinion ID: 855052
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fiduciary Status of the Agencies

Text: ERISA § 3(21)(A) imposes fiduciary status on (1) those who exercise discretionary authority [with regard to the management or administration of the plan], regardless of whether such authority was ever granted and (2) those who have actually been granted discretionary authority, regardless of whether such authority is ever exercised. Bouboulis v. Transp. Workers Union of Am. , 442 F.3d 55, 63 (2d Cir. 2006) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). We review de novo the question of whether a party is an ERISA fiduciary. See LoPresti v. Terwilliger, 126 F.3d 34, 39 (2d Cir. 1997). 8 As the Administrators have not developed an argument in their briefs that the EOC Suffolk Delinquency Claim is barred by the three-year limitations period, they have waived any such argument. See Tolbert v. Queens Coll., 242 F.3d 58, 75 (2d Cir. 2001). Furthermore, we do not reach the Administrators' argument that the Diversion Claim is time-barred because we affirm the district court's judgment on the basis of the Underfunding and EOC Suffolk Delinquency Claims, as explained below. - 25 -
The agencies argue that they are not fiduciaries of the Plan because the Trust Agreement assigned only ministerial functions to them and assigned discretionary authority to the Trustees. We reject this argument. The district court correctly found that th e Trust Agreement granted the agencies ultimate discretionary authority to administer the Plan. Section 2 of the Trust Agreement expressly provided that the Plan would be administered by the agencies, and that the Trustees would act upon the agencies' direction. Even if the agencies never exercised this discretion, the Trust Agreement's grant of actual discretionary authority to them is sufficient to find that the agencies are fiduciaries under ERISA § 3(21)(A). See Bouboulis, 442 F.3d at 63.