 Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fourth Circuit › 2003 › Andrew J. Rego, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Westvaco Corporation; Westvaco Corporation Savings and Inves...
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED ARGUED: John David James, Smith, James, Rowlett & Cohen, L.L.P., Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Wood Walter Lay, Hunton & Williams, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellees, ON BRIEF: Patricia K. Epps, Michael L. Walton, Hunton & Williams, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees.
Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, KING, Circuit Judge, and GOODWIN, United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.
Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge KING and Judge GOODWIN joined.
Andrew Rego filed suit against his employer, two employee benefits plans, and the administrator of those plans, alleging a series of violations of the Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA). The gravamen of his complaint was a charge that defendants had prevented him from withdrawing his share of one of the benefits plans in time to take advantage of a high stock price. He also claimed that defendants had failed to give him statutorily required information and that they had improperly delayed his pension payments by a month. The district court dismissed most of his allegations for failure to state a claim and remanded several claims for administrative resolution. The plan administrator granted Rego relief on one of his claims and rejected the rest, and the district court affirmed the plan administrator. We affirm the district court.
Rego was employed by Westvaco Corporation from 1980 to 1997, working as Southeast Region Sales Representative for most of that time. During his employment, he participated in two employee benefit plans administered by Westvaco: the Westvaco Corporation Savings and Investment Plan for Salaried Employees ("Savings Plan") and the Westvaco Retirement Plan for Salaried Employees ("Pension Plan"). The parties have stipulated that both the Savings Plan and the Pension Plan are "employee benefit pension plan [s]" within the meaning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 29 U.S.C. § 1002(2) (A) (2002). The Savings Plan is funded partly by contributions from participants and partly by contributions from Westvaco. The Pension Plan is funded entirely by Westvaco. Rego regularly received communications pertaining to each plan, including a Summary Plan Description. He also attended a Pre-Retirement Seminar in 1996 for Savings Plan participants.
In May 1997, Westvaco notified Rego that his position with Westvaco was going to be eliminated and that he would be terminated effective October 15, 1997. He was told to contact human resources employee Cheryl Blume with any questions he had regarding the company Savings Plan and Pension Plan.
On October 16, 1997, Westvaco sent Rego a letter with information about his company benefits and the mechanics of withdrawing funds from the two Plans after his termination. The letter informed Rego that he was eligible to submit distribution forms at any time, and that if he chose to withdraw funds from the Plan, his "account would be valued on the Tuesday next following or coincident with the receipt of [his] distribution form." The Plan itself states that a terminated employee will be able to withdraw all of his funds on "any Valuation Date [any Tuesday when the New York Stock Exchange is open] elected by the member." Likewise, the Summary Plan Description states that a terminated employee can receive a distribution of all his funds with an immediate valuation if he turns in his request by 4:15 p.m. on the Valuation Date of his choice.
Rego alleges that he and his wife repeatedly asked Blume to specify the earliest date that Rego's funds in the Savings Plan could be valued and distributed. According to Rego, Blume consistently responded that the earliest point Rego could do this was November 4, 1997. Blume testified that she does not recall any such conversation, but offered one reason why she might have identified November 4 as the relevant date. Rego was actually entitled to a valuation and distribution of some of his assets on October 21, 1997—the first Valuation Date following his termination. But because he did not receive his final paycheck (a portion of which was automatically invested in the Savings Plan on his behalf) until the end of October, Rego could not actually have withdrawn all of his funds from the Plan until November 4. Blume testified that, therefore, "if he had asked me, when can I withdraw all of my funds, then I would have had to tell him... November 4th."
Another employee who had been terminated on the same day as Rego went directly to Blume on October 21, 1997 and told her that he wanted his interest in the Savings Plan valued and distributed effective that day. Blume executed the employee's request, and he received his distribution with a valuation date of October 21.
Based on the information given to him by Blume, Rego requested that his holdings in the Savings Plan be valued and distributed to him at the earliest time he thought possible: November 4. Had his holdings been valued on October 21, they would have been worth $197,228. However, on October 27, the value of the stock in the Plan fell substantially, and Rego notified Blume that he no longer wanted his portion of the Savings Plan distributed on November 4.
More than a year later, on January 25, 1999, Rego submitted distribution forms directing defendants to distribute his Savings Plan funds by sending the cash proceeds to one IRA and the stock shares to another IRA. Rather than filling out the pre-printed distribution forms completely, he attached a separate sheet detailing his instructions for the distribution. Blume approved the forms and told Rego that the valuation would be effective on February 9. The valuation on February 9 would have been $126,146. However, Blume was then told by another Westvaco employee that Rego could not make multiple distributions from his funds. She was told that this "was not company policy but a matter of cost and Westvaco chose not to do multiple rollovers."
On February 16 and 17, another employee of Westvaco told Rego and his wife that he could not make his distribution as requested, both because multiple rollovers were impossible and because forms could not be completed by reference to attached materials. Rego and his wife replied that he should not have to file new forms, and that his distribution should be valued based on the February 9, 1999 valuation. However, on February 25 Rego received a letter stating that he was required to file new forms, and that the valuation would be based on the value on the Tuesday following the date of the receipt of the forms. This letter did not inform him that he had a right to appeal the determination about the Savings Plan distribution.
Ultimately, Rego's interest in the Savings Plan was distributed to him in the form of stock on March 2, 1999 and valued at $113,796. He eventually sold the stock through several transactions at the end of 1999 for a total of $182,288.
Besides the dispute over the Savings Plan distributions, the two parties have also joined issue over Westvaco's handling of Rego's Pension Plan participation. On May 6, 1998, Rego prepared, notarized, and mailed forms to begin his pension payments on February 1, 1999. However, when his wife called Westvaco in January 1999 to ensure that pension payments would begin as scheduled, she was told that Westvaco could not find any retirement forms for Rego. She then faxed copies of the forms to Westvaco, which were received on January 27. Westvaco took no action until February 5, 1999, at which point Rego's wife was informed that the forms were incorrect because they were more than ninety days old. Rego had not been aware of the ninety-day rule, because the statement of that rule was contained in an April 1997 Pension Plan amendment that he never received. Rego's pension was not started until March.
Rego filed suit against Westvaco, its Plan Administrator, the Savings Plan, and the Pension Plan. His claims focused on four issues: Westvaco's failure to value his assets on October 21, 1997, Westvaco's failure to value his assets on February 9, 1999, Westvaco's failure to begin his Pension Plan payments in February 1999, and Westvaco's failure to provide him with statutorily required information. The district court dismissed most of his claims under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) (6). It remanded three of them—a claim for the difference in his Savings Plan assets between the October 21, 1997 and March 2, 1999 valuation, a claim for the difference in those assets between the February 9, 1999 and March 2, 1999 valuation, and a claim for the money he would have received from the Pension Plan between February 1 and March 1, 1999—for exhaustion of administrative remedies before the Benefits Plans Administration Committee (BPAC), the entity responsible for the resolution of administrative claims related to the Savings Plan and the Pension Plan.
Administrative remedies resulted in an award to Rego of the pension money that should have been paid to him during February 1999, with interest. His claims under the Savings Plan, however, were rejected. The district court dismissed his challenge to the administrative ruling on summary judgment. The court also refused to grant him attorney's fees for the expense of pursuing his Pension Plan claim administratively. Rego now appeals.
Rego first claims that he was entitled to relief under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a) (3), which allows plaintiffs to obtain "appropriate equitable relief" for ERISA