Opinion ID: 715716
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Railroad Retirement Act Benefits

Text: 7 Plaintiffs' claim of interference with benefits due them under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 was also properly dismissed. Section 1003(b) of ERISA excludes from coverage any governmental plan, defined as including any plan to which the Railroad Retirement Act of 1935 or 1937 applies. See 29 U.S.C. § 1002(32). Plaintiffs argue that because Section 1002(32) does not refer to the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, railroad retirement plans under the 1974 Act are not excluded from coverage by ERISA. 7 We conclude that all Railroad Retirement Act plans are exempt from ERISA. This construction is required to accomplish Congress' purpose and is not precluded by the inadvertent failure to specifically identify the 1974 statute in section 1003. 8 ERISA was adopted to meet a perceived need for minimum federal standards to govern private pension plans. See 29 U.S.C. § 1001(a); H.R.Rep. No. 807, 93rd Cong., 2nd Sess., reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4670, 4676-81; H.R.Rep. No. 533, 93rd Cong. 2nd Sess., reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4639, 4640-46. It is reasonable to assume plans under the 1935 and 1937 Railroad Retirement Acts were excluded from ERISA because such plans were already subject to independent federally administered statutory controls and were not plagued by the problems affecting private pension plans. This is equally true of plans adopted under the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act. 9 The benefit and contribution levels in plans under the 1974 Act are prescribed by that Act and regulations issued under it, see 20 C.F.R. § 200.1 et seq., and are administered by the Railroad Retirement Board, an independent executive agency, see 45 U.S.C. § 231 et seq., just as are plans issued under the two earlier revisions. Indeed, the 1974 Act added to the financial stability of Railroad Retirement Act plans and strengthened government controls over such plans, thus further diminishing any need for ERISA coverage. See S.Rep. No. 1163, 93rd Cong., 2nd Sess., reprinted in 1974, U.S.C.C.A.N. 5702, 5702-14; U.S. Railroad Retirement Board v. Fritz, 449 U.S. 166, 169, 101 S.Ct. 453, 456, 66 L.Ed.2d 368 (1980). 10 Failure to add a specific reference to the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act in section 1003 of ERISA was understandable. ERISA was enacted six weeks before the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974. See P.L. 93-406, 83 Stat. 832 (1974); P.L. 93-445, 88 Stat. 1305 (1974). Section 1002(32) of ERISA listed only the 1935 and 1937 Railroad Retirement Acts because they were the only Railroad Retirement Acts then in existence. Conversely, the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act was omitted not because of a deliberate decision that plans under the 1974 Act were not to be exempt from ERISA, but simply because the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act was not yet law. 11 Nor is it surprising that the need to anticipate passage of the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act and include a specific reference to that Act in ERISA would be overlooked. As Judge Dorsey pointed out in the only reported decision on the subject, 8 the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act codified and absorbed and superseded the Railroad Retirement Acts of 1935 and 1937. Cornelio v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 585 F.Supp. 490, 491 (D.Conn.1984). Consequently, [t]he 1935 and 1937 Acts do not now exist as pure and separate legislative acts. They were absorbed into the 1974 enactment and now constitute one statute. Id. at 493; See also Historical Note, Subchapter IV, Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 45 U.S.C. § 231. In this context, the need to identify the most recent version of what was legislatively regarded as a single railroad retirement program would not have been obvious. Moreover, if the original Railroad Retirement Act and its two revisions are regarded as distinct, and section 1002(32) is taken literally, ERISA would exempt plans under statutes no longer existent, but not plans under the only [Railroad Retirement Act] now in the United States Code, a result that would attribute to Congress a legislative non sequitur without rational explanation. Cornelio, 585 F.Supp. at 491. 12 The statutory language does not explicitly bar a reading of section 1002(32) that excludes from ERISA retirement plans under the 1974 Railroad Retirement Act. In view of the continuing nature of the Railroad Retirement Act program, it is not unreasonable to emphasize the reference to the Railroad Retirement Act in section 1002(32), rather than the reference to particular revisions, especially in light of the additional reference to funding through contributions fixed by that Act. This reference to funding characterizes plans under all three Railroad Retirement Acts. Furthermore, in the legislative history dealing with exemption provisions in ERISA, Congress made no distinction between the various Railroad Retirement Acts, simply noting that plans under a Railroad Retirement Act were exempt from ERISA's coverage. H.R.Rep. No. 533, 93rd Cong., 2nd Sess. reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4639, 4713; H.R. Conf. Rep. 1280, 93rd Cong., 2nd Sess, reprinted in 1974 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5038, 5043. 13 Although admittedly not inescapable, a construction of section 1003 that exempts all Railroad Retirement Act plans accords with the clear purpose of Congress and avoids anomalous results.