<nobr>Feb 12, 2007</nobr>

ERIC Files Amicus Brief with Supreme Court on Floor Offset Plans

ERIC today filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Xerox v. Miller on behalf of petitioner Xerox’s request for certiorari. The case is being appealed by Xerox from a Ninth Circuit decision that invalidated the method used by Xerox for determining benefits in their floor offset plan. ERIC’s brief urges the Court to grant certiorari because the Ninth Circuit misconstrued a regulation finalized in 1977, which, to date, no other court or agency has ever applied to a floor offset arrangement. ERIC argued that construing the regulation to apply to these plans misstates the law and greatly restricts employer flexibility to design retirement benefits that fit their needs and threatens the viability of the defined benefit system.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals September 17 issued an amended opinion in the case that permitted Xerox to offset a defined benefit plan benefit by the actuarial value of a prior defined contribution distribution. ERIC had filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit prior to the amended opinion urging the court rehear the case en banc. The court’s earlier opinion had only permitted an offset by the prior value of the DB plan benefit and not by the excess of the DC distribution over the prior DB benefit. The amended opinion, however, still invalidated Xerox’s calculation by disallowing an increase in the offset for the DC distribution relative to the rate of return the distribution would have earned if the benefit had stayed in the plan.
Text Files:

ERIC's Amicus Brief

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