The U.S.
very best courtroom on Monday sided with a employer that amended a collective
bargaining agreement to force retirees to pay towards healthcare charges,
throwing out a lower-court ruling that preferred the former personnel who
objected to the exchange.
On a unanimous vote, the nine-member court docket passed a
win to M&G Polymers united states of america, a subsidiary of
Italy-primarily based chemical enterprise Mossi & Ghisolfi international,
by sending the case returned for further court cases within the
Cincinnati-based sixth U.S. Circuit court of Appeals.
Allyson Ho, the company’s attorney, said the splendid
courtroom’s ruling “sends a sturdy message that restores a level playing
discipline in advantages litigation nationwide.”
almost 500 plaintiffs from Ohio
who had worked at the M&G polyester plant in Apple
Grove, West Virginia, sued in
2006 when the agency stated retirees would be required to make a contribution
to their healthcare fees.
The plaintiffs, backed via the United Steelworkers union,
stated the collective bargaining settlement assured them fitness benefits
without requiring them to make a contribution.
The plaintiffs received within the U.S.
District court docket for the eastern District of Ohio following a bench trial,
and the choose imposed an injunction reinstating the unique blessings. In an
August 2013 ruling, the sixth Circuit upheld the district court docket
decision.
The question on which M&G sought excessive court
assessment was whether or not the 6th Circuit effectively made a presumption in
favor of the retirees after locating the contract did now not actually country
the duration of the benefits.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing on behalf of the court
docket, said the appeals court docket had now not used the appropriate legal
analysis.
Thomas wrote that “while a settlement is silent as to the
length of retiree benefits, a court won't infer that the events meant the ones
blessings to vest for life.”
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