NewPage Wis. Sys., Inc., v. United Steel, Paper & Forestry, Rubber, Mfg,. Energy Allied Indus. & Servs. Workers Int'l Union, No. 10-2887 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseThe company closed paper mills and eliminated a health-care subsidy for retirees. The union filed suit in Ohio under the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 185, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1132. The company filed a declaratory judgment suit in Wisconsin; the district court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded. Although the suit does not seek equitable relief as described in Sect. 502 of ERISA, Sect. 2201 does authorize declaratory relief. The court further reasoned that the district court acknowledged its jurisdiction over the LMRA suit and that the union's suit came within the 502 grant of jurisdiction, so this mirror-image suit by the plan’s sponsor also is within federal subject-matter jurisdiction. In dismissing the Wisconsin litigation, the district judge assumed that the controversy would be resolved in Ohio. That is no longer true because the union mistakenly named a parent company that was not a party to the collective bargaining agreements; the case has been dismissed.
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