Opinion ID: 3011431
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Oral Communications

Text: To introduce the VJEPS, Freedom Forge held meetings describing the programs and their benefits. Gerald Sieber testified via deposition that it was his job to meet with prospective retirees and brief them on the retirement benefits to which they were entitled. Sieber, along with other members of the benefits administration team, also met informally with potential retirees and answered their questions. Sieber testified that he knew that health insurance was very important to people considering retirement, that it was always discussed and that I would get a lot of questions on it. I think it was a very major factor, especially if one was approaching early retirement, it was a major factor in determining whether they were going to take early retirement or not. Sieber testified that he told employees that they (and their surviving spouses) would be insured for their lifetimes. He acknowledged that he told people that the benefits would be free of monthly charge. Although he later testified that he did not use those words (free of any monthly charge), he explained: I would normally say, your program of health insurance benefits continues as it is, with the exception of dental coverage . . . and the fact that the retiree program contained some different allowances for certain parts of the program . . . I think all the retirees knew that--potential retirees knew that since they did not pay any monthly insurance premiums as active employees, they were not expected to pay any premiums as retirees. Sieber acknowledged that he never told employees that their plans would or could change. He provided potential retirees with booklets, including those listed infra, which he called summary plan descriptions (SPDs) (this is an ERISA term of art, referring to the document required by ERISA to inform beneficiaries about their rights under a plan, see 29 U.S.C. S 1022). These booklets outlined the structure of the retirement benefits plans and included no 7 explicit reservation of rights. Sieber testified that he thought that the summary plan descriptions for salaried employees did not apply to retirees. Robert Robinson testified that he believed that the company always had the right to change or terminate the programs in which the retirees were enrolled, but that he never told any retirees or potential retirees of that right during the relevant time period. He stated that he did not inform them of the termination right because the intention was to provide coverage for the rest of the beneficiaries' lives. The testifying retirees gave slightly different accounts of the content of Sieber's (and others') assurances, but they uniformly claimed that they were left with the impression that they would have lifelong insurance at the company's expense. For example, Stanley Treaster testified that he and his wife were told by Sieber that they would get full health benefits from the company until he turned 65, and that the company would then pay for a supplement so that, along with medicare benefits, they would be fully covered. Treaster represented that he was never told that he would have to pay premiums. Many of the plaintiffs testified that they relied on these assurances in making their decision to retire. For example, Albert Basom related that he took early retirement in 1982 after a man-to-man meeting with Jerry Sieber in his office. He testified that Sieber told him that he would have no-cost health coverage for life, for himself and his wife. He also said that he definitely was influenced by the promised health benefits, and that he would not have been able to retire without them.