Judge Denise Cote
Plaintiff's mother Mary was never divorced from estranged husband John. Mary's pension under defendant fund was subject to a "Joint and One-Half (50%) Survivor Option." John declined to waive his right to Mary's benefits. Mary's renewed 2010 benefits application sought to name plaintiff daughter as beneficiary. In May 2011 the fund began disbursing Mary's pension retroactive to August 2010. After Mary died intestate in 2011, a Feb. 14, 2012, Surrogate's Court decree found John abandoned Mary and was disqualified as a surviving spouse. John died in 2012. The Fund's Retirement Committee found abandonment not a basis to deny a spouse a survivor right, and that John did not waive his right to Mary's benefits. District court granted the fund judgment in plaintiff's Aug. 17, 2012, suit alleging ERISA's violation by not paying her under her late mother's pension. The fund's plan did not arbitrarily deny benefits to plaintiff. The Retirement Committee found that despite estrangement, Mary did not meet plan and ERISA requirements for naming plaintiff daughter as her beneficiary. Plaintiff's acquisition of a posthumous finding of abandonment was legally insufficient to waive ERISA's default surviving spouse annuity.
