Raymond B. Yates, M.D., P.C. Profit Sharing Plan, and Raymond B. Yates, Trustee v. William T. Hendon, Trustee (541 U.S. 1)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 2, 2004 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 541 U.S. 1 · 124 S. Ct. 1330
- Decided
- March 2, 2004
- Term
- October Term 2003
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents a question on which federal courts have divided: Does the working owner of a business (here, the sole shareholder and president of a professional corporation) qualify as a “participant” in a pension plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or Act), 88 Stat. 832, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq. The answer, we hold, is yes: If the plan covers one or more employees other than the business owner and his or her spouse, the working owner may participate on equal terms with other plan participants. Such a working owner, in common with other employees, qualifies for the protections ERISA affords plan participants and is governed by the rights and remedies ERISA specifies. In so ruling, we reject the position, taken by the lower courts in this case, that a business owner may rank only as an “employer” and not also as an “employee” for purposes of ERISA-sheltered plan participation. I A Enacted “to protect . . . the interests of participants in employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries,” 29 U. S. C. § 1001(b), ERISA comprises four titles. Title I, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq., “requires administrators of all covered pension plans to file periodic reports with the Secretary of Labor, mandates minimum participation, vesting and funding schedules, establishes standards of…
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