Concrete Pipe and Products of California, Inc. v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California (508 U.S. 602)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
508 U.S. 602 · 113 S. Ct. 2264
Decided
June 14, 1993
Term
October Term 1992
Vote
9–0
Majority author
Justice Souter
Issue area
Economic Activity
Disposition
Affirmed
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Liberal

Opinion excerpt

Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California (Plan) is a multiemployer pension trust fund established under a Trust Agreement executed in 1962. Petitioner Concrete Pipe and Products of California, Inc. (Concrete Pipe), is an employer and former contributor to the Plan that withdrew from it and was assessed “withdrawal liability” under provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U. S. C. §§1301-1461 (1988 ed. and Supp. III), added by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA), Pub. L. 96-364, 94 Stat. 1208. Concrete Pipe contends that the MPPAA’s assessment and arbitration provisions worked to deny it procedural due process. And, although we have upheld the MPPAA against constitutional challenge under the substantive component of the Due Process Clause and the Takings Clause, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. R. A. Gray & Co., 467 U. S. 717 (1984); Connolly v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 475 U. S. 211 (1986), Concrete Pipe contends that, as applied to it, the MPPAA violates these provisions as well. We see merit in none of Concrete Pipe’s contentions. I A pension plan like the one in issue, to which more than one employer contributes, is characteristically maintained to fulfill the terms of collective-bargaining agreements. The…

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