Algren v. Titan Tire, 197 F.3d 915 (8th Cir. 1999)-Former hourly employees of Pirelli Armstrong Tire Corp. brought this action claiming that Pirelli and its Pension and Benefits Plan Administration Committee violated ERISA when they terminated retiree health care benefits in 1994. Plaintiffs also argue that Pirelli and the Committee were estopped to alter the employee welfare benefits. The District Court granted defendants’ Motion for Summary judgment. Plaintiffs appealed.
The court agreed with the district court that the governing Agreement on Employee Benefit Programs unambiguously conditioned retiree health benefits upon qualified retirement, and plaintiffs failed to produce any evidence of documents that indicated otherwise. It was undisputed that none of the employees had retired and (vested their rights in the policy) before Pirelli changed its retiree benefits policy. Furthermore, ERISA preempted the plaintiffs' state-law promissory-estoppel claims. The Plaintiffs cannot maintain federal-law claims of estoppel to alter the plain and unambiguous language of the plan documents.
