Opinion ID: 787647
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Banuelos's Summary Judgment Motion

Text: 30 Courts will generally bind ERISA defendants to the more employee-favorable of two conflicting documents—even if one is erroneous. See Bergt v. Ret. Plan for Pilots Employed By MarkAir, Inc., 293 F.3d 1139 (9th Cir.2002). This is because 31 Any burden of uncertainty created by careless or inaccurate drafting ... must be placed on those who do the drafting, and who are most able to bear that burden, and not on the individual employee, who is powerless to affect the drafting of the summary or the policy and ill equipped to bear the financial hardship that might result from a misleading or confusing document. Accuracy is not a lot to ask. 32 Id. at 1145 (quoting Hansen v. Cont'l Ins. Co., 940 F.2d 971, 982 (5th Cir.1991)). Here, the court is presented with two plans. One plan includes the five-year vesting provision, while the other does not. Because the ERISA plan that includes the five-year vesting provision is more favorable to Banuelos than the plan without the provision, this court must determine whether, as a matter of law, Banuelos is entitled to a pension under the plan that includes the five-year vesting provision. 33 Limiting consideration to the evidence in the administrative record, Banuelos's summary judgment motion should have been granted. As previously noted, section 4.07(e) provides that an employee who has accumulated five years of credited service is entitled to a pension. It is undisputed that Banuelos's years of credited service total no fewer than six years and no more than seven years. The plan administrator erred in concluding that Banuelos must work 501 more hours to receive his pension because of his 1990 break in service. This break in service occurred after Banuelos had completed the five years of service required for vesting. Once an employee has completed the required service for vesting, a subsequent break in service cannot deprive the employee of benefits. See Nachman Corp. v. Pension Ben. Guaranty Corp., 446 U.S. 359, 378 n. 27, 100 S.Ct. 1723, 64 L.Ed.2d 354 (stating that the vesting of a pension means that the receiving of a pension is no longer contingent upon remaining in the employer's service); see also Martin v. Constr. Laborer's Pension Trust for S. Cal., 947 F.2d 1381, 1383 (9th Cir.1991) (stating that the pension plan's break-in-service rules applied only until the worker completed the service required for vesting); Bolton v. Constr. Laborers' Pension Trust for S. Cal., 954 F.2d 1437, 1438 (stating that the pension plan's break-in-service rules allowed cancellation of a non-vested participant's credited service). 34 Because Banuelos completed the required service for vesting and his post-vesting breaks in service do not affect his pension entitlement, Banuelos is entitled to a pension as a matter of law. V