Opinion ID: 584555
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ERISA Discharge Claim

Text: 20 As noted above, the district court dismissed Humphreys' ERISA claim because Humphreys was an at-will employee. 764 F.Supp. at 494. We affirm the district court's dismissal of that claim, but for reasons other than those stated by the district court. 21 Title 29, section 1140 of the U.S.Code provides, It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge ... a participant or beneficiary ... for the purpose of interfering with the attainment of any right to which such participant may become entitled under the plan, ... It also states that the provisions of 29 U.S.C. § 1132 are applicable in the enforcement of rights granted under this section. In general, section 1132 authorizes the prosecution of civil suits to enforce substantive rights granted by the statute. 22 When applying this statute, most courts have held that it is appropriate to employ a Burdine, burden-shifting approach if there is no direct evidence of the employer's motivation. Conkwright v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 933 F.2d 231, 239 (4th Cir.1991); Dister v. Continental Group, Inc., 859 F.2d 1108, 1112 (2d Cir.1988); Gavalik v. Continental Can Co., 812 F.2d 834, 852 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 979, 108 S.Ct. 495, 98 L.Ed.2d 492 (1987); see generally Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981). We shall follow that same approach. Thus, to avoid summary judgment on a section 1140 claim, a plaintiff must show the existence of a genuine issue of material fact that there was: (1) prohibited employer conduct (2) taken for the purpose of interfering (3) with the attainment of any right to which the employee may become entitled. Gavalik, 812 F.2d at 852. 23 This Court has noted that in order to show that he was discharged in violation of Section 1140, a plaintiff must show that an employer had a specific intent to violate ERISA. Rush v. United Technologies, Otis Elevator Div., 930 F.2d 453, 457 (6th Cir.1991). The plaintiff is not required to show that the employer's sole purpose in discharging him was to interfere with his pension benefits, but rather that it was a motivating factor in the decision. Meredith v. Navistar Int'l Transp. Corp., 935 F.2d 124, 127 (7th Cir.1991); Conkwright, 933 F.2d at 238; Dister, 859 F.2d at 1111; Titsch v. Reliance Group, Inc., 548 F.Supp. 983 (S.D.N.Y.1982), aff'd, 742 F.2d 1441 (2d Cir.1983). 24 If the plaintiff proves a prima facie case as set forth above, it is the employer's burden to introduce admissible evidence of a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its challenged action. Gavalik, 812 F.2d at 853; see Dister, 859 F.2d at 1112 (same, but noting that employer need not persuade the court that it was actually motivated by the proffered reasons). If the employer fails to do so, judgment should then be rendered for the plaintiff. Gavalik, 812 F.2d at 853. If the employer successfully asserts a legitimate reason for its actions, then the presumption of wrongful action drops from the case, and the plaintiff must either prove that the interference with pension benefits was a motivating factor in the employer's actions or prove that the employer's proffered reason is unworthy of credence. Id. at 853; Dister, 859 F.2d at 1112. 25 Applying this analysis to the present case, it is clear that summary judgment for North American was appropriate. Humphreys met his burden of presenting evidence to support each of the elements of a prima facie case. He was discharged, and it was his testimony that his pension would have vested in two months and that this would have cost the company a substantial amount. Although it is no more than the bare minimum that a plaintiff must show to meet the prima facie case threshold, in this case it satisfies that low threshold because, examining only Humphreys' evidence, the proximity to vesting provides at least some inference of intentional, prohibited activity. See Biggins v. Hazen Paper Co., 953 F.2d 1405, 1416 (1st Cir.1992), petition for cert. filed, 60 U.S.L.W. 3719 (Apr. 3, 1992) (No. 91-1600). 26 North American has presented a legitimate reason for discharging Humphreys, specifically that the mine which he had managed was sold and that, by the people who were to be retained in the other mine, Humphreys was perceived as being out for himself rather than being a company man. Humphreys has presented no evidence to show that these reasons were pretextual. We are not persuaded that Murray's statement, made at the time of Humphreys' discharge, that he could not afford me any longer is evidence of North American's intention to interfere with his pension rights. First, there is no evidence from which to infer that Murray used afford in reference to financial matters. In light of the perceived problems of Humphreys' disloyalty to the company, such an inference is at least unlikely. Second, even if the statement did refer to financial matters, it cannot be the basis for an ERISA/discharge claim. The Fourth Circuit addressed a similar argument as follows. 27 [Plaintiff] Conkwright tries to save his claim by citing statements that Westinghouse sought to meet its financial need by terminating him, and that financial need necessarily includes pension costs. Conkwright's suggestion that Westinghouse acted illegally because it acted to save money proves too much. Under that reasoning, any actions by an employer that result in savings would be suspect. It is obvious that benefit costs make up a large amount of the costs of an employee to a company, and that pension rights are a substantial component of benefit costs, but these undeniable propositions are not sufficient standing alone to prove the requisite intent by the path of pretext. 28 Conkwright v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 933 F.2d 231, 239 (4th Cir.1991). Also, in Nixon v. Celotex Corp., 693 F.Supp. 547 (W.D.Mich.1988), the court held that for a plaintiff to prevail on a section 1140 claim, he must prove more than monetary savings for his employer. 29 The something more which must be shown is a causal link between pension benefits and the adverse employment decision. In order to survive defendants' motion for summary judgment, plaintiff must come forward with evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that defendants' desire to avoid pension liability was a determining factor in plaintiff's discharge. 30 693 F.Supp. at 555. We find the reasoning of these cases to be both persuasive and fully applicable to the present case. 31 The only other proof of pretext that Humphreys offered was the proximity between discharge and vesting. While we acknowledged above that proximity to vesting may provide enough to support the existence of a prima facie case, once the employer has presented a separate, legitimate reason for the discharge, we do not believe that savings and proximity will always be enough to entitle plaintiff to a trial on this type of claim. At least one court has held that the type of evidence presented here does not preclude summary judgment. In Dister v. Continental Group, Inc., 859 F.2d 1108, 1117 n. 1 (2d Cir.1988), the court stated that its previous decisions cannot be read to mean that mere cost savings and proximity to benefits are sufficient per se to create a genuine issue of material fact. See also Serb v. Gagnier Prods. Co. Defined Benefit Pension Plan, 658 F.Supp. 6, 8 (E.D.Mich.1986); but cf. Biggins v. Hazen Paper Co., 953 F.2d 1405, 1416 (1st Cir.1992) (permitting the jury to draw inferences from the proximity of the date of firing and the date of vesting of plaintiff's pension). Here, any possible inference of pretext that might be drawn from the proximity to vesting is eliminated because Humphreys was discharged on or about the date of the sale of the mine. Under these circumstances, we conclude that Humphreys' meager evidence is not sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact. 32 Therefore, although the district court's reasoning was incorrect, summary judgment was nevertheless appropriate on Humphreys' ERISA claim. For the reasons set forth above, we affirm the district court's judgment for North American on Humphreys' ERISA claim. See, e.g., Russ' Kwik Car Wash, Inc. v. Marathon Petroleum Co., 772 F.2d 214, 216 (6th Cir.1985) (district court's decision must be affirmed if correct for any reason, including a reason not considered by the district court).