Opinion ID: 445295
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of an Impartial Tribunal

Text: 23 Thompson contends that the MPPAA deprives Thompson of an impartial tribunal by giving the Fund's trustees initial responsibility to determine the withdrawal liability. See 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1399. The trustees, Thompson contends, have an inherent interest in assessing as large a liability as possible, and, despite this alleged conflict of interest, the trustees' determination rebuttably is presumed correct. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(a)(3). 24 Most of the appellate courts that have addressed this argument have found no institutional bias on the part of the trustees. See The Washington Star, 729 F.2d at 1511; Standard Dye, 725 F.2d at 855; Republic Industries, 718 F.2d at 640-41. But see Keith Fulton, 741 F.2d at 460-62. Many of the trustees' functions are ministerial, not adjudicative in nature, thus diminishing the opportunities to inject bias. Republic Industries, 718 F.2d at 640 n. 13. Moreover, they bring to this task a specialized knowledge of the Plan not available elsewhere, and are under a fiduciary duty to act neutrally and reasonably in assessing withdrawal liability. The Washington Star, 729 F.2d at 1511. 25 We respectfully decline to follow the First Circuit's holding in Keith Fulton that the trustees are compelled by their fiduciary duty to the Fund to assess the highest possible liability, or that they may be motivated by intentions to punish the withdrawing employer or deter others from withdrawing. The method of computing liability is carefully prescribed by the Act. To the extent that the presumption allows the trustees to select from a range of possible liabilities, the presumption is rational. Congress reasonably might have allowed the trustees a narrow range of flexibility to determine withdrawal liability conservatively. We agree with the reasoning of the Fourth Circuit in Republic Industries rejecting a similar challenge, 718 F.2d at 640-41 and find no denial of an impartial tribunal.