Ocampo v. Building Service 32B-J Pension Fund, No. 14-0877 (2d Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq., seeking a pension based on permanent disability. On appeal, plaintiff challenged the district court's grant of defendants' motion for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion based on the ground that the Pension Plan gave defendants discretion to determine an applicant's eligibility for pension benefits and that defendants' reliance on SSA determinations, policies, and procedures in this matter was neither arbitrary nor capricious. The court rejected plaintiff's contentions that the real decisionmaker on her benefits applications was the SSA and that the Trustees exercised no discretion but simply rubber-stamped SSA decisions. The court concluded that the district court properly reviewed the Trustees' denial of plaintiff's application under the arbitrary-and-capricious standard. Further, the record also provides no support for plaintiff's contention that the Trustees' denial of her application for a permanent-disability pension was arbitrary and capricious. The court concluded that all of plaintiff's arguments are without merit and the court affirmed the judgment.
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