Opinion ID: 49577
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: August 2003 Plan

Text: Merritt was an employee of FedEx. FedEx established a Voluntary Severance Incentives Plan (the “Plan”) to provide, among other things, financial benefits to eligible employees who voluntarily terminated their employment with FedEx pursuant to the Plan. By its terms, the Plan was effective on August 1, 2003. Eligible employees, of which Merritt was one, could “elect to sever their employment relationship and receive the benefits described herein if their termination occurs no later than November 30, 2003, except as provided in Section 3(h) herein.” Section 3(h) of the Plan provided that the eligibility period was August 1 through November 30, 2003 and that “[t]he date of an Eligible Employee’s severance/termination may be delayed up to May 31, 2004, as determined by management for business reasons[.]” Other provisions of the Plan stated that an employee’s election to sever his employment and receive benefits 1 A severance pay plan is an “employee welfare benefit plan” as defined under ERISA. See Adams v. Thiokol Corp., 231 F.3d 837, 840 n.4 (11th Cir. 2000). 2 could be rejected if FedEx exceeded its goal for voluntary retirements or terminations by eligible employees. The Plan also granted FedEx the “sole and absolute discretion to interpret where necessary all provisions of the Plan . . . .” Merritt requested a Plan packet on August 29, 2003. The packet contained a copy of the Plan, a Summary Plan Description (“SPD”), and a VSI General Release and Waiver Agreement (“Agreement”) for accepting voluntary severance under the Plan. The SPD referenced the General Release and Waiver Agreement that accompanied the SPD and instructed employees to sign and return the Agreement by November 24, 2003 if they wished to accept the Plan. Apparently, FedEx selected the November 24 deadline for returning the Agreement so that an accepting employee’s paperwork could be processed and his employment terminated by the November 30 deadline in the Plan. The SPD also stated that employees must “sign and have notarized the blue VSI General Release and Waiver included in this packet.” Thus, the Plan documents here included the Plan, SPD, and the Agreement.