A group of nursing homes that left two multiemployer benefit plans and set up new plans has decided to voluntarily withdraw from its legal battle to demand a share of assets from the old benefit plans.
The formal withdrawal in the case, Local 144 Nursing Home Pension Fund vs. Nicholas Demisay, from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected by early July, said Henry Rose, partner with Epstein Becker & Green, Washington.
Mr. Rose represents the old plans.
Employers sponsoring the breakaway plans are dropping their claim for a proportionate share of assets of the old plans because they do not want to spend more money on legal expenses.
An arbitrator already has ruled that the employers, not the new plans, should pay for the expenses.
The Supreme Court last summer had ruled the employers who broke away from the multiemployer plans were not entitled to transfer a proportionate share of their contributions from the old plans to the new plan.
But the high court justices sent the case back to the lower court to determine whether the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act allows such a transfer.
