Opinion ID: 430879
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: PBGC's Case-by-Case Method for Determining Period Coverage

Text: 28 Appellants contend that PBGC abused its discretion in failing to promulgate rules governing the eligibility of pension plans seeking window period coverage. Relying on SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 202-03, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 1580, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947), appellants aver that agencies are restricted in their ability to make case-by-case determinations to one of three situations: (1) where the agency must solve a problem that it could not reasonably foresee; (2) where the agency has insufficient experience with a problem to warrant rigidifying its tentative judgment into a rule; and (3) where the problem is so specialized that it cannot be captured within the boundaries of a rule. Brief for Appellants at 49-50. Appellants assert that the instant case fits none of these situations, and therefore PBGC was arbitrary and capricious in its failure to promulgate rules. 11 29 Although an agency is not unfettered in its choice of whether to proceed by general rule or by case-by-case determination, that choice ... is one that lies primarily in the informed discretion of the administrative agency. Chenery, 332 U.S. at 203, 67 S.Ct. at 1580. We believe that PBGC was justified in choosing a case-by-case approach for window period determinations. 30 PBGC came into existence on September 2, 1974 charged with the responsibility of administering a complex and novel pension plan insurance program. One of PBGC's challenges was the task of processing window period claims. Because the filing of window period claims was limited to the two-month period between September 2 and October 31, 1974, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1461(b)(4), only about 200 claims were filed. PBGC chose to process this finite number of claims on a case-by-case basis. In view of the limited utility of a window period regulation, the demand for immediate disposition of window period claims, and the fact that appellants were afforded ample opportunity to present information to PBGC concerning their claim, we find that PBGC did not abuse its discretion in choosing to make window period decisions on a case-by-case basis. See generally A-T-O, Inc. v. PBGC, 634 F.2d 1013, 1023-24 (6th Cir.1980). 31