United States Seventh Circuit

In plaintiff's ERISA suit against the Illinois CPA Society & Foundation Retirement Income Plan (Plan) for denying his request for a lump-sum distribution, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) the district court applied the correct standard of review to both the administrator's interpretation of the terms of the Plan and the legal determination of whether the plan violated the anti-cutback provisions of ERISA; 2) administrator's interpretation of the plan such that a lump-sum benefits was not available to plaintiff prior to Amendment One is well-reasoned and not arbitrary and capricious; 3) Amendment One did not eliminate an "optional form of benefit" and does not violate ERISA's anti-cutback provision because the plan participants were not entitled, under the Plan, to a lump-sum distribution; and 4) administrator's decision to deny a lump-sum distribution to plaintiff was not arbitrary and capricious as it would have put the Plan in deficit and would have violated the Internal Revenue Code, thus risking the tax status of the plan for all of its participants.

Appellate Information

• Argued 01/22/2009
• Decided 11/10/2009
• Published 11/10/2009

Judges

• KENDALL, District Judge., Before MANION and KANNE, Circuit Judges, and KENDALL, District Judge.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Patrick J. O'Hara (argued), Cavanagh & O'Hara, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• William P. Hardy (argued), Hinshaw & Culbertson, Springfield, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.