The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit looked to rulings from seven of its sister circuits over the past 30 years to appropriately define the word “employer” in a case of a New Jersey trucking company withdrawing funds early from a multiemployer pension plan.

On Tuesday, the Third Circuit adopted the definition of “employer” as someone obligated to contribute to a plan, finding that J. Supor & Sons Trucking, a construction contractor that worked on New Jersey’s American Dream project—one of the largest retail developments in the country—counts as an employer and must resolve any early withdrawal-liability disputes in arbitration.