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Goldstein v. Johnson & Johnson

Judgment denying plaintiff's claim for additional pension benefits affirmed because the court was not clearly in error when it determined that the administrator of a "top hat" plan had been granted broad discretion to interpret the plan's terms and had made a good faith interpretation of the plan's pension calculation terms.

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Argued: September 14, 2000

OPINION OF THE COURT

This is an appeal by Dr. Gideon Goldstein fr om the adverse judgment of the District Court in favor of his former employer, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), following a bench trial. It requires us to addr ess again the question of the proper scope of judicial review of the decision of a plan administrator acting under the Employee Retir ement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. S 1001 et seq., to deny benefits to a participant. Although this topic has been exhaustively examined in the context of benefits denials generally, see Firestone T ire & Rubber Co. v. Bruch, 489 U.S. 101 (1989), and in the context of decisions made by potentially self-interested administrators specifically, see Pinto v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 214 F.3d 377 (3d Cir. 2000), we now face a benefits-denial decision in a new context: that of a “top hat” plan, i.e., a”plan which is unfunded and is maintained by an employer primarily for the purpose of providing deferred compensation for a select group of management or highly trained employees.” Miller v. Eichleay Eng’rs, Inc., 886 F.2d 30, 34 n.8 (3d Cir. 1989) (citations omitted).

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