Opinion ID: 3013299
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Leased Employees

Text: 1. The Fifth Circuit - Abraham In Abraham v. Exxon Corp., 85 F.3d 1126 (5th Cir. 1996), individuals who worked as leased employees were specifically excluded under the terms of Exxon’s plans. Id. at 1128. The plan administrator denied the plaintiffs’ benefit claims on this basis. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Exxon. The court concluded that the minimum participation requirements of ERISA 1052(a) did not preclude an employer from denying participation in an ERISA plan if the employer does so for reasons other than age or length of service, stating: Section 1052(a) does nothing more than forbid employers to deny participation in an ERISA plan to an employee on the basis of age or length of service if he is at least twenty-one years of age and has completed at least one year of service. Section 1052(a) does not prevent employers from denying participation in an ERISA plan if the employer does so on a basis other than age or length of service. Id. at 1130 (emphasis added). Similar results were reached by the Fourth Circuit in Clark v. E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., 1997 WL 6958 (4th Cir. Jan. 9, 1997), 105 F.3d 646 (table), the Tenth Circuit in Bronk v. Mountain States Tel. & Tel., Inc., 140 F.3d 1335 (10th Cir. 1998), and the Eleventh Circuit in Wolf v. Coca-Cola, 200 F.3d 1337 (11th Cir. 2000).