Michael’s Floor Covering, Inc. v. Resilient Floor Covering Pension Fund
Petition for certiorari denied on May 23, 2016
Issue: (1) Whether withdrawal liability can be imposed on an alleged successor to a defunct construction industry employer whose participation in a covered fund has terminated, where the defunct employer does not continue to perform work within the fund's jurisdiction and therefore under 29 U.S.C. § 1383 has incurred no withdrawal liability to pass on to any alleged successor; (2) whether such withdrawal liability can be imposed on an alleged successor to a defunct employer in the absence of a finding that the successor purchased a substantial portion of the assets of the predecessor employer, as required by this Court in Golden State Bottling Co. v. NLRB, and in the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act context by the Seventh Circuit and the Third Circuit, and the defunct employer has not maintained any financial or management interest in the alleged successor; and (3) whether the Ninth Circuit improperly departed from this Court’s definition of labor law “successorship,” in conflict with many other circuits and with this Court’s holding in Fall River Dyeing & Finishing Corp. v. NLRB, by requiring the district court to give “special significance” to whether the alleged successor has generated significant “relative revenue” from common customers over and above the numerous other factors identified by this Court.