Opinion ID: 2552656
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Janssen Contracting Co., Inc.

Text: Janssen Contracting Co., Inc. (Janssen) is a construction business controlled by George Janssen. Janssen is a party to a collective bargaining agreement with the bricklayers union and made regular contributions to the Trust on behalf of its union employees. Donna Freitas was the bookkeeper for Janssen. Each month Janssen contributed to the Trust on behalf of its union member employees. The amount was based on the number of hours that each union member worked for Janssen during the month in question. To make the monthly contribution, Freitas would prepare a monthly remittance report, containing the names and hours worked of the employees for whom Janssen made contributions. Freitas would submit the report to the Trust's bank along with a check. The bank would deposit Janssen's checks and send copies of the transaction and the remittance report to the Trust. When Freitas had questions, she would request help from O'Dell of the merged bricklayers trust. At the Trust, Renz would receive the report. From the report, Renz would prepare a list of employees who were eligible for coverage and send the eligibility lists to Administrative Services, Inc., the business that the Trust hired to process contributions and pay them to plan providers. Shirley Pellitteri was the employee at Administrative Services assigned to receive eligibility lists and transmit them with corresponding premium payments to plan providers. In the late 1980s, Janssen began to make contributions to the bricklayers trust on behalf of its nonunion employees. After the merger, the Trust continued to accept these contributions. But Janssen and the Trust did not enter into a special agreement that included nonunion employees. This failure gave rise to the present case.