IBEW LOCAL 332 PENSION TRUST and the CONSTITUTION

The 9th District Federal Court is due to hear my appeal this month. Three judges will listen to a presentation by a court lawyer of the facts presented by the IBEW LOCAL 332 Pension Trust and me. I presented my written opening brief 1-28-2011. The Plan presented their written answering brief 3-02-2011 and then I presented a written reply brief 3-15-2011. So, according to court instructions everything is in writing and ready for presentation to the panel of three judges. Normally the presentation would be done by an attorney for each side but I have no representative, therefore the court uses their own guy for both sides. It is about a $10,000 minimum for a federal court lawyer, much more than I want to spend seeking a $40,000 restitution.

I found the following in the IBEW constitution. It looks to me like the three together make a case for accusing the trustees of a violation of the IBEW constitutional. I don’t know how the trustees approve pensions but the California Superior court raised my pension above what the Plan specified. That leads to a monetary loss by me (court expenses) caused by the Plan DRO. And that is the same as the economic harm mentioned in the constitution.
NEW MEMBER OBLIGATION
"I,_____(give name)____ , in the presence of members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, promise and agree to conform to and abide by the Constitution and laws of the I.B.E.W. and its local unions. I will further the purposes for which the I.B.E.W. is instituted. I will bear true allegiance to it and will not sacrifice its interest in any manner."

Article XX
Sec. 3. The acceptance of an application for membership, and the admission of time applicant into any L.U. of the I.B.E.W., constitutes a contract between the member, the L.U. and the I.B.E.W., and between such member and all other members of the I.B.E.W.

Article XXV
Sec. 1. Any member may be penalized for committing any one or more of the following offenses:

g) Wronging a member of the I.B.E.W. by any act or acts (other than the expression of views or opinions) causing him physical or economic harm.

Part of my case is getting my correct pension benefit recognized for what it is supposed to be. That will take winning this appeal and a favorable ruling by the judge. Did you know that ERISA cases are not allowed juries? If my present benefit is too low (which I maintain it is) then its approval by the trustees after their first approval was lowered (by the California court) makes them wrong twice. Would that be two IBEW constitutional errors by our fiduciaries?

I hope the next ERISA pension complaint isn’t yours!

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.
Will Rogers

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