Varhola V. Doe

Defendants appeal and plaintiffs cross-appeal the summary judgment for plaintiffs  in this action involving pension liability under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. We hold that the "arbitrary and capricious" standard of review applies to decisions by plain administrators to deny benefits to particular claimants. Because we find that there are factual issues which need to be resolved, we remand this case to the District Court for determination as to whether the plan administrator in this case acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying "shutdown pensions" to plaintiffs. We affirm the District Court's rulings that there is no evidence that defendants engaged in unlawful discrimination in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 1140 and that plaintiffs are not entitled to punitive or compensatory damages. We express no opinion on the other issues raised by the parties, but rather remand those issues to the District Court for further proceedings.