Mason Tenders District Council Welfare Fund v. Gibraltar

Background

The plaintiffs were five jointly administered, multi-employer trust funds and Dominick Giammona, acting in a fiduciary capacity as the Funds’ contributions and deficiency manager. They sued Gibraltar Contracting, Inc. and Christian Varela, in his personal capacity, under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Taft-Hartley Act, and the parties’ collective bargaining agreement.

The agreement required Gibraltar to make fringe-benefit contributions for covered work and to deduct and remit authorized employee dues checkoffs and political-action-committee contributions. It also required Gibraltar to allow the Funds to inspect and audit its records. An audit covering May 27, 2015, through December 27, 2016, was revised several times after additional documents were produced. The April 2, 2019 report found unpaid fringe-benefit contributions, dues checkoffs, and political-action-committee contributions, as well as imputed audit costs.

On April 17, 2019, the defendants stipulated that they were jointly and severally liable for the report’s findings. In later submissions, they confirmed liability for $566,555.67 in principal unpaid amounts and for contractual and statutory interest, liquidated damages, attorney’s fees, and costs. They also admitted that Gibraltar was substantially delinquent under the agreement. The opinion contains different figures in some descriptions of the stipulated amounts and later states that the principal amounts were $527,196.41 for fringe-benefit contributions and $39,359.13 for dues checkoffs and political-action-committee contributions.

Summary Judgment Standard

The court explained that summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine dispute about any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court viewed the record in the light most favorable to the defendants, who were opposing the motion.

Liability and Damages

The court held that the defendants’ liability was not contested. It granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on their claims for $527,196.41 in delinquent fringe-benefit contributions and $39,359.13 in dues checkoffs and political-action-committee contributions for the audit period through December 31, 2016.

The court also granted summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ damages claims. It concluded that ERISA and the agreement required awards of interest, liquidated damages, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, and other appropriate relief. It rejected the defendants’ arguments against the full imputed audit costs, explaining that the revisions resulted from additional document production rather than an apparent flaw in the audit process and that the agreement supplied a formula for calculating those costs.

The conclusion awarded the plaintiffs:

- Interest of $82,409.97, plus additional interest accrued from June 27, 2019, through January 8, 2020; - Liquidated damages of $82,409.97, plus the additional interest accrued during that period; - Imputed audit costs of $70,292.87; and - $11,597.57 in interest on unpaid dues checkoffs and political-action-committee contributions for May 27, 2015, through June 26, 2019.

Audit and Disposition

The defendants admitted that the plaintiffs were entitled under ERISA and the agreement to audit Gibraltar’s books and records for the period from December 28, 2016, to the present. The court therefore granted summary judgment on the audit claim as well.

Judge Analisa Torres granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment on all three specified categories of claims: delinquent contributions and related payments, damages, and the audit claim. The order directed the plaintiffs to file their motion for attorney’s fees by January 31, 2020.