Vendura, Jr. v. Boxer

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit

No. 15-2387

GEORGE J. VENDURA, JR.,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

JONATHAN BOXER; NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION; NORTHROP GRUMMAN
SPACE & MISSION SYSTEMS CORP. SALARIED PENSION PLAN; KEN
BEDINGFIELD; MICHAEL HARDESTY; NORTHROP GRUMMAN SPACE & MISSION
SYSTEMS CORP. SALARIED PENSION PLAN ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE;
NORTHROP GRUMMAN AEROSPACE SECTOR; TIFFANY MCCONNELL; NORTHROP
GRUMMAN SPACE & MISSION SYSTEMS CORP.; DENISE PEPPARD,

Defendants, Appellees.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Torruella, Lipez, and Barron,
Circuit Judges.

Stephen D. Rosenberg, with whom Caroline Fiore and The
Wagner Law Group were on brief, for appellant.
Brian D. Netter, with whom Nancy G. Ross and Mayer Brown
LLP were on brief, for appellees.

January 11, 2017
 BARRON, Circuit Judge. This appeal involves a suit

for pension benefits that George Vendura brings against Northrop

Grumman Corp. ("Northrop") and a number of related entities and

individuals.1 The key point of contention concerns the number of

"years of benefit service" that should be credited to Vendura in

calculating his pension benefits under his pension plan. We

affirm the judgment below, which grants summary judgment to

defendants.

I.

Vendura was hired by TRW Inc. ("TRW") in 1993 and

became a participant in the TRW Salaried Pension Plan ("TRW

Plan"). After Vendura worked for TRW for seven years, he went

on medical leave in June of 2000, in consequence of work-related

injuries that he had suffered much earlier. During this leave,

Vendura received Social Security and long-term disability

benefits. Vendura also applied for and, he contends, received

workers' compensation benefits during this time.

In 2002, Northrop acquired TRW and renamed the company

Northrup Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp. ("NGSMSC").

1In particular, Vendura brought suit against ten
corporate and individual defendants: Northrop Grumman Corp.,
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Sector, Northrop Grumman Space &
Mission Systems Corp., Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems
Corp. Salaried Pension Plan, Northrop Grumman Space & Mission
Systems Corp. Salaried Pension Plan Administrative Committee,
Jonathan Boxer, Ken Bedingfield, Michael Hardesty, Tiffany
Mcconnell, and Denise Peppard.
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Soon thereafter, NGSMSC attempted to terminate Vendura's

employment. Vendura, however, challenged the attempt to lay him

off, and, in 2003, Vendura and NGSMSC signed a settlement

agreement that kept Vendura on board at NGSMSC.

The settlement agreement provided that Vendura would

remain an "employee" of NGSMSC and "receive all benefits and

rights to which he is entitled pursuant to all benefit plans for

which he is eligible." The settlement agreement further

provided that Vendura would cease to be a NGSMSC employee only

when one of several specific conditions came to pass. One of

those conditions was that "Vendura's LTD [long-term disability]

status ends."

Because this case concerns a dispute over pension

benefits rather than employment, however, the settlement

agreement matters only insofar as it relates to Vendura's

pension plan. And, the relevant pension plan is the NGSMSC

Salaried Pension Plan ("NGSMSC Plan"), which, for former TRW

employees like Vendura, incorporated the eligibility criteria

set forth in the TRW Plan.

The TRW Plan provides that pension benefits for

participants, like Vendura, are to be calculated on the basis of

the participant's "Years of Benefit Service." Section 2.2 of

the TRW Plan, in subsection (a), makes clear that such years

include ones in which a participant receives compensation "for

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the performance of services." But, in the subsequent

subsections of Section 2.2, the TRW Plan allows participants to

accrue years of benefit service even for periods of time in

which the participant is absent from work, so long as that

absence is for a reason that is specified in one of those

follow-on subsections in Section 2.2.

Only two of the follow-on subsections are relevant

here: subsections (b) and (c). Until 1999, these two

subsections read as follows:

(b) absence without pay from work because of
injury or occupational disease received in
the course of his employment with the
Controlled Group and for which he receives
Workers' Compensation disability benefits;
provided, however, that service credit shall
be limited to a maximum of twelve months
unless the Participant has met the
eligibility requirements for receiving long
term disability benefits (whether or not he
actually receives such benefits);

(c) absence without pay from work due to a
disability and for which he is entitled to
receive long-term disability benefits under
any plan maintained by a member of the
Controlled Group[.]

Effective January 1, 1999, however, the TRW Plan was

amended by, among other things, changing subsection (c). Post-

amendment, subsection (c) reads as follows:

(c) absence without pay from work due to a
disability and for which he is entitled to
receive long-term disability benefits under
any plan maintained by a member of the
Controlled Group, provided, however, with

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 respect to an absence from work beginning on
or after January 1, 2000 as a result of
disability, (i) no more than sixty months of
Benefit Service will be credited under this
Section 2.2(c) for a Participant with five
or more years of Vesting Service and (ii) no
more than twelve months of Benefit Service
will be credited under this Section 2.2(c)
for a Participant with less than five years
of Vesting Service at the time such absence
from work commences.

(emphasis added to highlight the newly added language).

The proper interpretation of these subsections became

a subject of controversy after Vendura's long-term disability

insurer informed Vendura -- in October of 2012 -- that his

eligibility for long-term disability benefits would expire in

February of 2013. Vendura did not dispute that his long-term

disability benefits would expire at that time, or that, per the

settlement agreement, his employment with NGSMSC would thus come

to an end. For that reason, Vendura inquired about his pension

benefits and received a "retirement kit" from the Northrop

Grumman Benefits Center.2

In April of 2013, Vendura filed a claim for pension

benefits with the "Administrative Committee" for the NGSMSC

Plan. Under the documents comprising the NGSMSC Plan, the

Administrative Committee "is the 'plan administrator' under" the

Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), 29

2
More precisely, Vendura received two retirement kits:
one that would have allowed him to elect a lump-sum distribution
of his pension, and a second that did not grant him that option.
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U.S.C. § 1001 et seq., and possesses the "full and sole

discretionary authority to interpret all plan documents and to

make all interpretive and factual determinations as to whether

any individual is entitled to receive any benefit and the amount

of such benefit under the terms of the Plan."

In making his pension benefits claim to the

Administrative Committee, Vendura argued that he is entitled to

twenty years of benefit service under the settlement agreement.

Vendura also argued that, even independent of the settlement

agreement, he is entitled to that same number of years of

benefit service under the plain terms of subsection (b) of

Section 2.2. Finally, Vendura argued that he is entitled to

elect a lump-sum distribution of his pension.

The Administrative Committee rejected Vendura's

arguments in letters sent to him in May and June of 2013. The

letters informed Vendura that he was eligible for a pension

reflecting only twelve years of benefit service and not the

twenty years of benefit service that Vendura contended that he

had accrued. The letters also rejected Vendura's contention

that Vendura was entitled to elect a lump-sum distribution of

his pension.

The Administrative Committee's calculation of

Vendura's years of benefit service reflected the following

determinations. The Administrative Committee concluded that the

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settlement agreement does not provide for accrual of benefit

service beyond the right of accrual under the NGSMSC Plan

itself. The Administrative Committee further found that, under

the NGSMSC Plan, by virtue of Section 2.2 of the TRW Plan that

it incorporates, Vendura was entitled only to five years of

benefit service for the thirteen years in which he was both

absent from work due to his disability and for which he was

eligible for long-term disability benefits. The Administrative

Committee based that determination on the amended version of

subsection (c) of Section 2.2, which the Administrative

Committee concluded barred a participant from accruing more than

sixty months of benefit service based on the participant's

eligibility for long-term disability benefits. The

Administrative Committee therefore credited Vendura with only

twelve years of benefit service, based on the five years of

benefit service that he accrued during his absence from work and

the seven years of benefit service that he accrued under

subsection (a) of Section 2.2 during his employment with TRW and

before his disability-based absence began.

Vendura appealed the decision to the Administrative

Committee, which issued its final decision denying Vendura's

appeal with respect to each of these issues on December 19,

2013. So, in 2014, Vendura filed an eight-count complaint in

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the United States District Court for the District of

Massachusetts against the defendants.

The main issue on appeal arises under ERISA, which

permits a pension plan participant to bring a civil action "to

recover benefits due to him under the terms of his plan, to

enforce his rights under the terms of the plan, or to clarify

his rights to future benefits under the terms of the plan." 29

U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B). Vendura invokes this provision of ERISA

in his complaint in requesting that the District Court compel

defendants to fulfill their obligations under the NGSMSC Plan.

Vendura also brings a separate state law claim, in which he

argues that defendants are in breach of their obligations under

the settlement agreement, given what he contends is the

agreement's relationship to his rights under his pension plan.

After the defendants moved for summary judgment, the

District Court granted the motion. The District Court ruled

that the settlement agreement alone did not provide Vendura any

right to accrue years of benefit service beyond those to which

he would otherwise have been entitled. The District Court also

ruled that the Administrative Committee's interpretation of the

NGSMSC Plan, under which the sixty-month cap on the accrual of

years of benefit service that subsection (c) sets forth applies

to Vendura, was not arbitrary and capricious. And, on that

basis, the District Court ruled that Vendura was not entitled to

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pension benefits calculated based on his having accrued twenty

years of benefit service. Finally, the District Court ruled

that, in light of its finding with respect to the number of

years of benefit service to which Vendura was entitled, Vendura

also was not entitled to elect a lump-sum distribution of his

pension.

This timely appeal of the summary judgment order

followed.

II.

We start with Vendura's claim based on the settlement

agreement. He argues that because the settlement agreement

makes clear that Vendura remained an employee of NGSMSC until

his eligibility for long-term disability benefits expired, it

necessarily also entitled him to continue to accrue years of

benefit service for pension purposes up until that point in

time. And, for that reason, Vendura contends he is entitled to

the full twenty years of benefit service under the settlement

agreement.

The District Court, like the Administrative Committee,

rejected this argument. We review the District Court's

interpretation of the settlement agreement de novo. See

OfficeMax, Inc. v. Levesque, 658 F.3d 94, 97 (1st Cir. 2011)

("Contract interpretation . . . is a 'question of law' that is

reviewed de novo."); see also Hannington v. Sun Life and Health

- 9 -
Ins. Co., 711 F.3d 226, 230 (1st Cir. 2013) ("extra-plan

material" is reviewed de novo). And, on de novo review, we

conclude that Vendura's interpretation of the settlement

agreement is without merit.

Vendura is right that, under the settlement agreement,

he remained an employee of NGSMSC until his eligibility for

long-term disability benefits expired. And he is right that his

eligibility for those benefits did not expire until February of

2013. But the settlement agreement merely provides that Vendura

is entitled to "all benefits and rights to which he is entitled

pursuant to all benefit plans for which he is eligible." Thus,

by its terms, the settlement agreement just provides that

Vendura retains the status of an employee and is entitled to

receive whatever pension benefits under the NGSMSC Plan that he

would otherwise be entitled to by virtue of being an employee.

For this reason, the settlement agreement does not help Vendura.

It merely directs us to examine those provisions of the NGSMSC

Plan, including those provisions of the TRW Plan that the NGSMSC

Plan incorporates, which bear on Vendura's right to accrue years

of benefit service. And so we now turn to those provisions.

III.

As we have noted, the NGSMSC Plan vests the

Administrative Committee with the authority to interpret and

apply the relevant provisions. As a result, and in accord with

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the requirements of ERISA, we review the Administrative

Committee's interpretations under the deferential arbitrary and

capricious standard, which is "functionally equivalent to the

abuse of discretion standard." Wright v. R.R. Donnelley & Sons

Co. Grp. Benefits Plan, 402 F.3d 67, 74 n.3 (1st Cir. 2005).

And, under that standard, we must defer to plan administrators

when they "reasonably" construe ambiguous plan terms. See,

e.g., Kolling v. Am. Power Conversion Corp., 347 F.3d 11, 14

(1st Cir. 2003).

A.

In assessing the Administrative Committee's

interpretation, it helps first to understand Vendura's proposed

interpretation. Under subsection (a) of Section 2.2 of the TRW

Plan, Vendura unquestionably accrued seven years of benefit

service because he was compensated for his performance of

services to TRW for seven years. But, he readily concedes, due

to the disability that he suffered from on-the-job injuries and

the extended absence from work that resulted, he was not in

compliance with that condition thereafter.

Vendura contends, however, that he was in compliance

with the condition for accruing years of benefit service set

forth in the very next subsection of Section 2.2 -- subsection

(b) -- because he contends that he received workers'

compensation benefits due to his disability after he was no

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longer able to work.3 He thus argues that he falls within the

first half of subsection (b), which provides for the accrual of

benefit service for those participants who are "absen[t] without

pay from work because of injury or occupational disease received

in the course of [the participant's] employment with the

Controlled Group and for which [the participant] receives

Workers' Compensation disability benefits."

But participants who meet the condition specified in

the first half of subsection (b) are, the rest of subsection (b)

makes clear, entitled to accrue only one year of benefit service

on that basis. And, if that one year is added to the seven

years for which Vendura provided active service to TRW and was

compensated, for which subsection (a) entitled him to accrue

seven years of benefit service, he would be entitled to only a

total of eight years of benefit service.

Vendura nevertheless continues undeterred. He

explains that the second half of subsection (b) shows that he is

in fact entitled to the extra twelve years of benefit service

that he also contends that he accrued. Vendura points out that

the second half of subsection (b) provides that "service credit

shall be limited to a maximum of twelve months unless the

Participant has met the eligibility requirements for receiving

3
As defendants point out, the District Court made no
finding on whether Vendura in fact received workers'
compensation benefits.
- 12 -
long term disability benefits (whether or not he actually

receives such benefits)" (emphasis added). He also points out

that this highlighted language places no temporal limit on a

participant's right to accrue years of benefit service beyond

the temporal limit on the participant's eligibility for the

long-term disability benefits themselves. Vendura therefore

argues that the trailing language in the second half of

subsection (b) sets forth a separate entitlement to accrue years

of benefit service based on eligibility for long-term disability

that is distinct from the entitlement to years of benefit

service based on receipt of workers' compensation that is set

forth in the first half of subsection (b). And because his

eligibility for long-term disability benefits did not expire

until February of 2013, Vendura contends that subsection (b)

entitles him to accrue years of benefit service for the whole of

that time.

B.

The Administrative Committee counters Vendura by

pointing out that subsection (b) is not the only subsection that

addresses a participant's right to accrue years of benefit

service on the basis of eligibility for long-term disability

benefits. In fact, the very next provision in Section 2.2 --

subsection (c) -- does so as well. And the Administrative

Committee points to that provision -- and the sixty-month cap on

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the accrual of years of benefit service that it contains -- in

offering its competing interpretation of the trailing language

in the second half of subsection (b) and how that language

relates to subsection (c).

Specifically, in its June 2013 letter to Vendura, the

Administrative Committee described its view of the relationship

between subsections (b) and (c), and how they apply to a

participant like Vendura, as follows:

[I]f a participant receives workers'
compensation and long-term disability
benefits concurrently, his benefit service
is based on the period during which he
received long-term disability benefits
(subject to the 60-month limit [in
subsection (c)] described above). In your
case, you received long-term disability
benefits once your leave of absence began in
2000. As a result, any workers'
compensation benefits that you received
during the same period are disregarded under
the Plan.

Accordingly, that letter explained, Vendura was subject to the

sixty-month cap on the accrual of years of benefit service in

the amended subsection (c). And, in a later letter, the

Administrative Committee elaborated further and noted that,

historically, "[w]hen a participant received workers'

compensation and long-term disability benefits concurrently his

benefit service was always based on the period during which he

received long-term disability benefits." In that letter, the

Administrative Committee rejected Vendura's contrary contention

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on the ground that subsection (b) did not create a "loophole"

that would override the sixty-month cap imposed by subsection

(c).

Thus, the Administrative Committee rejects Vendura's

view that the second half of subsection (b) confers a stand-

alone right to accrue years of benefit service for as long as a

participant is eligible for long-term disability benefits to a

participant who satisfies the condition set forth in the first

half of subsection (b). The Administrative Committee instead

reads the second half of subsection (b) merely to set forth a

proviso that preserves the right of a participant like

Vendura -- notwithstanding that he may satisfy the condition in

the first half of subsection (b) -- to accrue years of benefit

service in accord with subsection (c). The Administrative

Committee therefore concluded that the sixty-month cap applies

to Vendura, and that he is entitled to five years of benefit

service beyond the seven years that he accrued under subsection

(a), with the result that he accrued a total of only 12 years of

benefit service.

C.

The upshot of these dueling readings is that the

parties agree that subsection (b)'s twelve-month cap does not

apply to Vendura, but disagree as to whether subsection (c)'s

sixty-month cap does. And so the decisive question on appeal:

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is the Administrative Committee's competing interpretation of

subsections (b) and (c), under which the sixty-month cap does

apply to Vendura, a reasonable one?

"When interpreting the provisions of an ERISA benefit

plan, we use federal substantive law including the 'common-sense

canons of contract interpretation.'" Rodriguez-Abreu v. Chase

Manhattan Bank, N.A., 986 F.2d 580, 585 (1st Cir. 1993) (quoting

Bellino v. Schlumberger Techs., Inc., 944 F.2d 26, 29 (1st Cir.

1991)). Here, because the NGSMSC Plan documents provide that

its provisions are to be construed in accordance with California

law, we also look to California's principles of contract

interpretation to guide our analysis. See Tetreault v. Reliance

Standard Life Ins. Co., 769 F.3d 49, 54 (1st Cir. 2014).

Applying this interpretive approach, we must not view

in isolation the trailing words in subsection (b) on which

Vendura's argument hinges. And when we consider the text and

structure of Section 2.2 as a whole, we find strong signals that

favor the Administrative Committee's reading. See Bowers

Hydraulic Dredging Co. v. United States, 211 U.S. 176, 188

(1908) ("To separate the words [of a phrase] from all the other

provisions of the contract, in order to give them . . . meaning,

repugnant to their significance in the contract, would be to

destroy, and not to sustain and enforce, the contract

requirements."); see also Hunt v. United Bank & Trust Co., 291

- 16 -
P. 184, 187 (Cal. 1930) ("[C]ontracts must be construed as a

whole . . . and the intention of the parties is to be collected

from the entire instrument and not detached portions thereof, it

being necessary to consider all of the parts to determine the

meaning of any particular part as well as of the whole.").

First, subsection (b) addresses the accrual of years

of benefit service based on eligibility for long-term disability

benefits only in the course of setting forth an exception to a

limitation on the wholly distinct entitlement that the

subsection confers -- namely, the right of a participant to

accrue twelve months of benefit service based on the

participant's absence from work due to a job-related disability

for which that participant received workers' compensation

benefits. But an exception to a limitation on that entitlement

is hardly an obvious place to locate the wholly distinct

entitlement to accrue years of benefit service based on

eligibility for long-term disability benefits. Subsection (c),

by contrast, is quite direct in providing the entitlement to

accrue years of benefit service on that basis. It thus is quite

a natural place for such a stand-alone entitlement to appear.

Second, no other provision in Section 2.2 sets forth

an entitlement to accrue years of benefit service in the

backhanded manner posited by Vendura's reading of the last half

of subsection (b). Rather, just like the first half of

- 17 -
subsection (b) and subsection (c), every other provision in

Section 2.2 sets out the criteria for the entitlement to accrue

years of benefit service in the first sentence of the provision.4

See, e.g., Penncro Assocs., Inc. v. Sprint Spectrum, L.P., 499

F.3d 1151, 1155–56 (10th Cir. 2007) ("When a contract uses

different language in proximate and similar provisions, we

commonly understand the provisions to illuminate one another and

assume that the parties' use of different language was intended

to convey different meanings."); Taracorp, Inc. v. NL Indus.,

Inc., 73 F.3d 738, 744 (7th Cir. 1996) ("[W]hen parties to the

same contract use such different language to address parallel

issues . . . it is reasonable to infer that they intend this

language to mean different things.").

Third, unlike the trailing language of the second half

of subsection (b), subsection (c) sets forth the kind of precise

and administrable definition of an entitlement that one would

expect a provision conferring an entitlement to provide. By

contrast, the trailing language in the second half of subsection

(b) does not specify the long-term disability benefits to which

it refers. That lack of specificity is curious if the second

4
The one subsection that contains multiple independent
entitlements, Section 2.2(f), sets them apart with Roman
numerals. The lack of Roman numerals before the second half of
subsection (b) thus provides further evidence that the second
half of that subsection was not intended to confer an
independent entitlement.
- 18 -
half of subsection (b) is intended to set forth an entitlement

to accrue years of benefit service on the basis of such

benefits. By contrast, the lack of specificity is not

surprising if the second half of subsection (b) merely clarifies

that those participants entitled to accrue twelve months of

benefit service based on their receipt of workman's compensation

for an on-the-job injury may also be able to claim sixty months

of benefit service pursuant to the very next subsection. Thus,

the fact that subsection (c) contains a specific reference to

those "long-term disability benefits under any plan maintained

by a member of the Controlled Group," and that the trailing

language in the second half of subsection (b) does not, supports

the Administrative Committee's conclusion.

Fourth, subsection (c), by its terms, does not purport

to set forth an entitlement to accrue years of benefit service

based on eligibility for long-term disability benefits that

would not apply to Vendura. Instead, the terms of that

subsection describe participants who may accrue years of benefit

service based on their eligibility for long-term disability

benefits without regard to whether the disability arose from a

work-related injury and without regard to whether the

participant received workers' compensation in consequence of

that injury.

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 Finally, in addition to these textual and structural

reasons for finding the Administrative Committee's reading to be

a reasonable one, there is the pre-amendment history of Section

2.2. Prior to the amendment to subsection (c), there was no

temporal cap under subsection (c). Thus, the following oddity

would have arisen if the trailing language of the second half of

subsection (b) set forth a stand-alone entitlement. Rather than

merely having helpfully clarified the availability of the

entitlement specifically provided for in subsection (c), that

portion of subsection (b) also would have superfluously set

forth that very same entitlement. The longstanding principle

against reading plan terms to be superfluous, therefore, points

against investing the last half of subsection (b) with the

greater substance that Vendura contends must be attributed to

it. Cf. Bouchard v. Crystal Coin Shop, Inc., 843 F.2d 10, 13–14

(1st Cir. 1988) ("Where the trustees of a plan . . . by their

interpretation render some provisions of the plan superfluous,

their actions may well be found to be arbitrary and capricious."

(quoting Miles v. N.Y. State Teamsters Conference Pension & Ret.

Fund Emp. Pension Benefit Plan, 698 F.2d 593, 599 (2d Cir.

1983))).

To be sure, there is now a temporal cap under

subsection (c). But, in light of the text and structure of the

two subsections that we have just reviewed, the Administrative

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Committee reasonably concluded that the imposition of the sixty-

month cap in subsection (c) did not provide -- for the first

time -- that those participants who are eligible for long-term

disability benefits and who had previously been eligible for

workers' compensation would be entitled to accrue more years of

benefit service than any other participants who were entitled to

accrue years of benefits services based on their eligibility for

long-term disability benefits. See, e.g., Diaz v. Seafarers

Int'l Union, 13 F.3d 454, 457–58 (1st Cir. 1994) (considering

the argument that a later version of a plan document shed light

on whether an earlier version conferred the power to interpret

pension eligibility rules); Kammerer v. Motion Picture Indus.

Pension Plan, 487 F. App'x 597, 599 (2d Cir. 2012) (finding that

when the current version of a plan did not define a relevant

term, the plan administrator's use of a particular rule was

supported by that rule's consistency with at least three earlier

versions of the plan). And so while the relevant provisions of

Section 2.2 certainly could have been clearer -- say, by

expressly cross-referencing subsection (c) in subsection (b) --

we conclude that the Administrative Committee reasonably

construed the provisions to subject Vendura to the sixty-month

cap in subsection (c).

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 IV.

The final issue concerns whether Vendura is entitled

to elect a lump-sum payment of his pension benefits. Under

Section 5.5 of the TRW Plan, which the NGSMSC Plan incorporates

for a participant like Vendura, a participant may elect a lump-

sum payment so long as "he files a written application therefor

while an Employee still accruing Service during the three

calendar month period immediately preceding his Retirement

Date." Vendura requested a lump-sum distribution in 2013. As a

result, the question of whether Vendura is entitled to a lump-

sum distribution is fully answered by considering whether he was

still accruing benefit service in 2013. Because we hold that

the Administrative Committee reasonably determined that Vendura

was not accruing years of benefit service under either the

settlement agreement or the Plan in 2013, in consequence of the

sixty-month cap in subsection (c) that the Administrative

Committee reasonably construed to apply to him, the

Administrative Committee also reasonably determined that Vendura

was not entitled to elect a lump-sum distribution at that time.

V.

For these reasons, the judgment of the District Court

is affirmed.

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