United States Eighth Circuit

An appeal from dismissal of an employer's declaratory judgment claims brought under the ERISA and the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and from summary judgment for a union on its counterclaim seeking to compel arbitration under LMRA is dismissed in part, but reversed as to the summary judgment ruling as: 1) the retiree health benefits negotiated between the parties did not vest before certain Master Agreements expired, and thus did not survive the expiration; 2) thus, the presumption of arbitrability did not apply here; and 3) the parties did not agree to arbitrate this dispute and the district court erred in granting summary judgment and ordering arbitration.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/18/2007
• Published 09/18/2007

Judges

• BOWMAN, Circuit Judge., Before MELLOY, BOWMAN, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Shay Dvoretzky, argued, Washington, DC (James A. Rydzel, Cleveland, OH, Andrew M. Kramer, Washington, DC, Kate Bushman and Robert T. Smith, New York, NY, Jerome A. Hoffman, Philadelphia, PA, on the brief), for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Sally M. Tedrow, argued, Washington, DC (Francis J. Martorana and Jennifer R. Simon, Washington, DC, G. Gordon Atcheson, Westwood, KS, on the brief,), for appellees.