Chicago Truck Drivers, Helpers and Warehouse Workers Union Pension Fund v. El Paso CGP Co.

Before CUDAHY, POSNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

The Chicago Truck Drivers, Helpers and Warehouse Workers Union (Independent) Pension Fund (the Fund) and its trustee, Jack Stewart, brought this suit against Defendants El Paso CGP Company, El Paso Midwest Company, El Paso CNG Company, L.L.C., American Natural Resources Company and ANR Advance Holdings, Inc. to collect withdrawal liability under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA). See 29 U.S.C § 1401(b)(1). The Defendants deny that they owe any withdrawal liability. The Fund, however, argues that the Defendants are not only liable but have forfeited their right to contest liability by failing to make a timely demand for arbitration back in 1999, when a proof of claim for withdrawal liability payment was filed in the Chapter 7 bankruptcy of one of the Defendants’ affiliates. The Defendants believe that their duty to arbitrate was not triggered in 1999 because the proof of claim was not the valid notice and demand for payment prescribed by the statute. The district court agreed with the Fund and granted its motion for summary judgment on liability but denied the Fund’s motion for judgment on damages, choosing instead to calculate damages under another theory. Both parties appealed.