David Day v. At&t Disability Income Plan ( 2012 )


Menu:
  •                     FOR PUBLICATION
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    DAVID DAY,                                       No. 10-16479
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    v.                                   D.C. No.
    5:06-cv-01740-JW
    AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN,
    OPINION
    Defendant-Appellee.
    
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Northern District of California
    James Ware, Chief District Judge, Presiding
    Argued and Submitted
    August 30, 2011—San Francisco, California
    Filed July 3, 2012
    Before: Raymond C. Fisher and Johnnie B. Rawlinson,
    Circuit Judges, and Robert J. Timlin, District Judge.*
    Opinion by Judge Fisher
    *The Honorable Robert J. Timlin, Senior United States District Judge
    for the Central District of California, sitting by designation.
    7843
    7846        DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    COUNSEL
    Robert Nichols, San Jose, California, for the appellant.
    Stephen H. Harris (argued), Caroline L. Elkin and Melinda A.
    Gordon, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP, Los
    Angeles, California, for the appellee.
    OPINION
    FISHER, Circuit Judge:
    David Day, an ERISA plan beneficiary, elected to roll over
    his pension benefits into an individual retirement account
    (IRA) upon separation from his employer, AT&T. Exercising
    its discretion, the plan’s claims administrator construed Day’s
    lump sum rollover as the equivalent of his having “received”
    his pension benefits and, according to the terms of AT&T’s
    Disability Income Benefit Plan, reduced Day’s long-term dis-
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN               7847
    ability (LTD) benefits by the amount of the rollover. Day
    argues that having his pension payout deposited directly into
    an IRA subject to tax penalties for early withdrawals meant
    he did not actually receive the funds, an interpretation that
    finds support in Blankenship v. Liberty Life Assurance Co. of
    Boston, 
    486 F.3d 620
    , 624-25 (9th Cir. 2007). Reviewing the
    claims administrator’s decision for an abuse of discretion,
    however, we must defer to the administrator’s reasonable
    interpretation of the plan. We also reject Day’s further conten-
    tions that AT&T failed to sufficiently disclose the possibility
    that his LTD benefits would be reduced by his receipt of pen-
    sion benefits, and that the administrator’s actions violate the
    Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Accord-
    ingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
    I.   Background
    David Day began working for Pacific Bell Telephone Com-
    pany, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc., in 2000. As an AT&T
    employee, he participated in the AT&T Pension Benefit Plan
    and the AT&T Disability Income Plan (the “Plan”).1 In Febru-
    ary 2005, he stopped working because of a disability. He
    began receiving LTD benefits under the Plan, and for reasons
    not relevant here, AT&T terminated Day’s employment in
    August 2005.
    In October 2005, Day chose to roll over his pension bene-
    fits into an IRA. In accordance with his election, the AT&T
    Pension Benefit Plan administrator sent Day a check in the
    lump sum amount of $17,203.93, payable to the trustee of his
    IRA.
    In August 2008, Sedgwick Claims Management, Inc.
    (Sedgwick), the Plan’s claims administrator, determined that
    1
    When Day filed this action he was employed by SBC. SBC subse-
    quently acquired AT&T. The parties do not dispute that SBC and AT&T
    are the same entity for purposes of this lawsuit.
    7848          DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    Day’s LTD benefits would be reduced by the amount of the
    rollover. The Plan provided that LTD benefits would be “re-
    duced by . . . pension benefits you may receive from any SBC
    company pension plan” (emphasis added). The Plan stated:
    If you are eligible and apply for pension benefits
    (including a Disability Pension, if applicable), your
    pension benefit, to the extent paid to you, will be
    subtracted from your LTD payments. (If you elect a
    cashout, the equivalent monthly amount will be cal-
    culated and used as the factor for integration with
    LTD payments.) If you are eligible but elect to defer
    applying for any applicable pension benefit, your
    LTD payments will not be reduced by any pension
    benefits you are entitled to until such time as you
    apply for and are actually paid the pension benefit.
    (Emphasis added.) Relying on these provisions, Sedgwick
    concluded that Day had received his pension benefits and
    reduced pro rata Day’s LTD monthly benefits by $74.71,
    resulting in a net benefit of $1,767.39 per month.
    Day protested that his LTD benefits should not have been
    reduced because he had neither “received” nor been “actually
    paid” the pension benefits. Rather, they had been deposited
    directly into his IRA, which imposed restrictions on his access
    to the funds, including substantial penalties for early with-
    drawals. Sedgwick interpreted the Plan differently.2 In Sedg-
    wick’s view:
    By electing to have his pension benefit paid from the
    pension plan, Mr. Day “received” his pension benefit
    for purposes of determining his disability benefit.
    Once outside of the pension plan, the proceeds were
    no longer subject to the rules of the pension plan.
    2
    Sedgwick explained its reasons in February and October 2009 letters
    to Day.
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN            7849
    Indeed, although held by a trustee, the economic
    reality is that the proceeds were under the full
    dominion and control of Mr. Day, to be invested as
    Mr. Day saw fit, and to be paid out to Mr. Day at
    times and in amounts as determined by Mr. Day in
    his sole discretion and utterly unfettered by any of
    the rules or requirements of the pension plan from
    which they had come. Mr. Day most certainly had
    “received” his pension benefit.
    (Emphasis added.) Sedgwick also “interpret[ed] the election
    to take the benefits from the Pension Plan as having been
    actually paid to the participant.” (Emphasis added.) In justify-
    ing its interpretation, Sedgwick rejected Day’s reliance on
    Blankenship where, in the context of a nondiscretionary plan,
    we construed “receive” in the beneficiary’s favor as not
    including a rollover of pension benefits into an IRA. See 
    486 F.3d at 624-25
    .
    Ruling on cross motions for summary judgment, the district
    court sustained Sedgwick’s interpretation. The court con-
    cluded that Sedgwick’s interpretation of the Plan was entitled
    to deference because “the Plan language unambiguously
    imparts full discretionary authority on the Plan Administrator
    to interpret the provisions of the Plan and to make eligibility
    determinations as needed.” The court rejected Day’s argu-
    ments for applying a lesser standard of review. Reviewing for
    an abuse of discretion, the court concluded that it was “not
    unreasonable to interpret the Plan to include [Day’s] rollover
    within the ambit of ‘pension benefits [the participant] may
    receive,’ ” and affirmed Sedgwick’s decision to reduce Day’s
    benefits by the amount of the rollover.
    The district court entered judgment in favor of the Plan,
    and Day timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 
    28 U.S.C. § 1291
    , and we affirm.
    7850          DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    II.   Interpretation of the Plan Under ERISA
    A.   The District Court Properly Reviewed for Abuse of
    Discretion
    Day first challenges the district court’s ruling that Sedg-
    wick’s interpretation of the Plan is reviewed for an abuse of
    discretion. Although Day concedes that the Plan conferred
    discretion on Sedgwick as claims administrator, he maintains
    that because Sedgwick was (1) biased or conflicted; (2) pro-
    vided inconsistent reasoning for its denial; and (3) engaged in
    procedural misconduct, heightened or de novo review is
    required. We review this question de novo. See Abatie v. Alta
    Health & Life Ins. Co., 
    458 F.3d 955
    , 962 (9th Cir. 2006) (en
    banc) (“We review de novo a district court’s choice and appli-
    cation of the standard of review to decisions by fiduciaries in
    ERISA cases” and “review for clear error the underlying find-
    ings of fact.”); see also Pannebecker v. Liberty Life Assur-
    ance Co. of Boston, 
    542 F.3d 1213
    , 1217 (9th Cir. 2008).
    Because the Plan conferred full discretion on Sedgwick,
    unless Day’s allegations of bias and misconduct are both true
    and warrant less deference, the district court correctly
    reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See Abatie, 
    458 F.3d at 967
     (holding abuse of discretion review is required whenever
    an ERISA plan grants discretion to the plan administrator, but
    such review is informed by any conflict of interest appearing
    in the record). The district court did not err in finding no
    inherent or structural conflict of interest. The Plan is funded
    by AT&T and not Sedgwick, and administered by Sedgwick
    and not AT&T. See Abatie, 
    458 F.3d at 967
     (a reviewing
    court must always consider the “inherent conflict that exists
    when a plan administrator both administers the plan and funds
    it”). Nor did the court err in rejecting Day’s allegations of
    actual conflict of interest. Just because Sedgwick consulted
    with AT&T in responding to Day’s concerns about his rolled
    over pension benefits being received by the IRA does not
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN            7851
    show that AT&T had any influence over Sedgwick’s decision
    making process in this regard.
    Day’s remaining contentions are likewise without founda-
    tion. Although he is correct that we generally apply de novo
    review when an administrator engages in “wholesale and fla-
    grant violations of the procedural requirement of ERISA,” 
    id. at 971
    , and thus “fails to exercise discretion[,]” 
    id. at 972
    ,
    Day failed to present material or probative evidence in sup-
    port of these bold assertions. At best he showed only that
    Sedgwick in its February 2009 and October 2009 letters elab-
    orated on its initial reasons for rejecting his appeal, and that
    AT&T failed to provide him with copies of various docu-
    ments that he was instead required to obtain from a separate
    AT&T office. Cf. 
    id. at 972
     (“[W]hen a plan administrator’s
    actions fall so far outside the strictures of ERISA that it can-
    not be said that the administrator exercised the discretion that
    ERISA and the ERISA plan grant, no deference is warrant-
    ed.”). In sum, the district court correctly rejected Day’s alle-
    gations of misconduct by the claims administrator and
    properly reviewed for abuse of discretion. See Abatie, 
    458 F.3d at 967
    .
    B.   Sedgwick Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in
    Interpreting the Plan
    Under the deferential abuse of discretion standard of
    review, “the plan administrator’s interpretation of the plan
    ‘will not be disturbed if reasonable.’ ” Conkright v. From-
    mert, 
    130 S. Ct. 1640
    , 1651 (2010) (quoting Firestone Tire &
    Rubber Co. v. Bruch, 
    489 U.S. 101
    , 111 (1989)). “ERISA
    plan administrators ‘abuse their discretion if they render deci-
    sions without any explanation, . . . construe provisions of the
    plan in a way that conflicts with the plain language of the
    plan’ ” or “rel[y] on clearly erroneous findings of fact.” Taft
    v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc’y, 
    9 F.3d 1469
    , 1472-73 (9th
    Cir. 1994) (quoting Eley v. Boeing Co., 
    945 F.2d 276
    , 279
    (9th Cir. 1991)), abrogated on other grounds by Abatie, 458
    7852           DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    F.3d at 973. Applying these criteria, we hold that Sedgwick
    did not abuse its discretion.
    Day’s chief arguments are that the Plan language prohibited
    the offset of the pension plan benefits against the LTD bene-
    fits, as applied by Sedgwick, and that Blankenship barred the
    offset. We disagree.
    [1] We begin with the relevant portions of the Plan and
    related documents that Sedgwick interpreted in reaching its
    offset determination.3 First, the Plan benefit formula man-
    dated certain offsets to LTD benefits, as did the Summary
    Plan Description (SPD). The Plan’s offset provision (section
    4.2) was set forth in a section entitled “Benefits from Other
    Sources” and stated:
    In addition to those listed in the applicable SPD,
    other benefits that reduce Benefits paid under the
    Plan include all benefits for which the Employee
    would be eligible if he applied for them, whether or
    not he actually receives them.
    (Emphasis added.) The SPD stated:
    The plan provides you with an LTD benefit . . .
    reduced by . . . pension benefits you may receive
    from any SBC company pension plan . . . .
    3
    Although Day argues that the district court erred by deferring to what
    he describes as Sedgwick’s interpretation of statutory terms, Sedgwick did
    not engage in statutory interpretation, nor does Day cite any authority in
    support of his contention that Sedgwick was required to look beyond the
    Plan to the ADEA’s definition of such terms as “receive” and “paid.”
    Moreover, even assuming Sedgwick was required to look to the ADEA,
    Day fails to explain why interpreting the statute would result in an under-
    standing of “receive” or “paid” substantially different from that arrived at
    by Sedgwick in interpreting the Plan.
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN              7853
    ...
    If you are eligible and apply for pension benefits
    (including a Disability Pension, if applicable), your
    pension benefit, to the extent paid to you, will be
    subtracted from your LTD payments. (If you elect a
    cashout, the equivalent monthly amount will be cal-
    culated and used as the factor for integration with
    LTD payments.) If you are eligible but elect to defer
    applying for any applicable pension benefit, your
    LTD payments will not be reduced by any pension
    benefits you are entitled to until such time as you
    apply for and are actually paid the pension benefit.
    Accordingly, the Plan and SPD provide that Day’s LTD bene-
    fits would be offset by any pension benefit: (i) for which he
    elected a cashout (“If you elect a cashout, the equivalent
    monthly amount will be calculated and used as the [offset]
    factor”); (ii) for which he was paid (“your pension benefit, to
    the extent paid to you, will be subtracted from your LTD pay-
    ments”); or (iii) which he received (“[your] LTD benefit [will
    be] . . . reduced by benefits you may receive from . . . any
    SBC company pension plan”).
    [2] Sedgwick’s conclusion that Day received his pension
    benefits when he rolled them into an IRA was not an unrea-
    sonable interpretation. To “receive” means to “take into pos-
    session or control.” Blankenship, 
    486 F.3d at 624-25
    ; see
    American Heritage Dictionary 1467 (5th ed.) (defining “re-
    ceive” as “[t]o take or acquire (something given or offered)”).
    When a beneficiary rolls a pension into an IRA, he may not
    take possession of it, but he has control over the assets. For
    instance, he can choose the IRA and change it; and he can
    withdraw funds from it, albeit perhaps having to pay penalties
    for early withdrawal. It is therefore not unreasonable to say
    that he has received these benefits.
    Day contends this conclusion is in conflict with Blanken-
    ship. It is not, because our holding there is plainly distinguish-
    7854           DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    able. We determined that a plan providing for an offset for
    pension benefits received by a beneficiary was ambiguous,
    because “receive” can mean either possession or control. See
    Blankenship, 
    486 F.3d at 624-25
    . Reviewing de novo and
    applying the doctrine of contra proferentem (“ambiguities are
    to be construed unfavorably to the drafter” Black’s Law Dic-
    tionary 377 (9th ed. 2009)), we construed the ambiguity
    against the Plan and held that “receive” referred to funds actu-
    ally coming into the possession of a beneficiary. See Blanken-
    ship, 
    486 F.3d at 625
    . Therefore, funds rolled over to an IRA
    were not to be used to offset disability benefits. See 
    id. at 627
    .
    [3] In rejecting Blankenship as controlling, Sedgwick cor-
    rectly explained to Day that the case by its own terms does
    not apply here. As we acknowledged, contra proferentem
    applies when a plan does not grant a plan administrator dis-
    cretion to interpret ambiguous plan terms; the doctrine does
    not apply when a plan “grants the administrator discretion to
    construe its terms.” 
    Id. at 625
    .4 In the latter context, it is the
    administrator who resolves ambiguities in the plan’s lan-
    guage. See Winters v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 
    49 F.3d 550
    ,
    554 (9th Cir. 1995) (so holding). Because Sedgwick had dis-
    cretion to interpret the Plan, the only question is whether
    Sedgwick’s interpretation of “receive” to include Day’s con-
    trol of his IRA funds was unreasonable. See Conkright, 
    130 S. Ct. at 1651
    . It was not. The administrator therefore did not
    act unreasonably in concluding that Day had received pension
    benefits, and appropriately reduced his LTD benefits to
    account for the rollover.
    III.   AT&T’s Duty to Disclose
    [4] Day faults AT&T for failing to disclose to him the dis-
    advantages of choosing the IRA option, particularly its effect
    4
    We also noted that the doctrine does not apply to a “self-funded” plan.
    Blankenship, 
    486 F.3d at 625
    . Sedgwick also properly invoked this excep-
    tion.
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN            7855
    on his LTD benefit payments. Upon termination of his
    employment, Day had several options for his pension. Appar-
    ently unaware of these consequences, he chose the IRA rol-
    lover not knowing that this seemingly insignificant election
    could cost him $17,000 in disability benefits to which he was
    otherwise entitled. Day concedes that AT&T did nothing to
    compel him into making this election, nor did it give him any
    false information regarding his choices. But he contends that
    AT&T breached its statutory and common law fiduciary
    duties by failing to affirmatively advise him of the financial
    consequences that could arise were he to elect a rollover.
    Although we have some sympathy for this argument in gen-
    eral, it is not compelling here. First, Day argues that the 2002
    SMAART Guide he received did not include any explanation
    of the possible benefits offset and did not refer the reader to
    the SPD, which contained a more in-depth description of the
    offsetting policy. AT&T responds that this omission was cor-
    rected in the 2005 SMAART Guide sent to all employees that
    explicitly refers participants to the SPD, but Day disputes
    receiving it. In any event, he does not dispute that he had
    access to the SPD itself, which explained the offset policy at
    some length. Thus, the undisputed evidence shows that at the
    relevant times during his employment, AT&T furnished Day
    with Plan documents explicitly stating that disability benefits
    would be offset by pension benefits received or paid.
    Second, we find no legal basis for Day’s contention that, at
    the time of his separation from employment, AT&T was
    under an affirmative obligation to remind Day of the offset
    provisions or to advise him in particular that electing a lump
    sum rollover of his pension benefits could result in a substan-
    tial reduction of his LTD benefits or a tax penalty. Day relies
    on cases in which employers deceived beneficiaries to evade
    plan obligations. See, e.g., Varity Corp. v. Howe, 
    516 U.S. 489
    , 493-94 (1996); Farr v. U.S. W. Commc’ns, Inc., 
    151 F.3d 908
    , 911-12 (9th Cir. 1998); Griggs v. E.I. DuPont de
    Nemours & Co., 
    237 F.3d 371
    , 374-76 (4th Cir. 2001).
    7856        DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    [5] Here, by contrast, Day asserts only the failure to mail
    him a reminder of information that was already contained in
    the SPD, not a scheme to “deceiv[e] a plan’s beneficiaries in
    order to save the employer money at the beneficiaries’
    expense.” Varity, 
    516 U.S. at 506
    . It might seem a simple
    matter, for example, for AT&T to have imprinted a reminder
    of potential disability benefits offsets on the form Day used
    to exercise his distribution option. Cf. Chappel v. Lab. Corp.
    of Am., 
    232 F.3d 719
    , 726-27 (9th Cir. 2000) (holding that an
    ERISA plan administrator would have breached its fiduciary
    duty if it adopted a mandatory arbitration clause with a 60-day
    time limit in which to demand arbitration, and gave notice of
    the clause and its terms only in a summary plan description
    contained in an employment manual). However, such advice
    would not be relevant to all users of the rollover procedure
    and there is no legal requirement that such a form include
    warnings of all potential consequences when plan documents
    already contain that information for the employee. Cf. Farr,
    
    151 F.3d at 915
     (observing that there is no “duty to provide
    Plaintiffs with individualized notice of all the ways the tax
    laws would impact each of their individual distributions”).
    AT&T thus did not breach its fiduciary duties by failing to
    disclose information.
    IV.   ADEA Compliance
    Finally, Day contends that offsetting LTD benefits by pen-
    sion benefits violates the Age Discrimination in Employment
    Act (ADEA) and runs afoul of Kalvinskas v. California Insti-
    tute of Technology, 
    96 F.3d 1305
     (9th Cir. 1996).
    A.   AT&T Waived Its Argument that the ADEA Does
    Not Apply
    [6] As a preliminary matter, we hold that AT&T waived
    the argument that the ADEA does not apply as a matter of
    law. The protections of the ADEA apply only to employees
    at least 40 years of age. See 
    29 U.S.C. § 631
    (a). Here, AT&T
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN               7857
    argues that Day was only 39 at the time any ADEA violation
    may have occurred, so his ADEA claims fail as a matter of
    law. Because AT&T raised this issue for the first time at oral
    argument, we must decide whether AT&T has waived the
    issue. To do so, we must first ascertain whether the ADEA’s
    age requirement is jurisdictional or an element of a claim. A
    jurisdictional defect can be raised at any time, and cannot be
    waived, whereas an argument that the plaintiff failed to satisfy
    an element of a claim does not ordinarily affect the subject
    matter jurisdiction of the court, and may therefore be waived.
    See Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp., 
    546 U.S. 500
    , 506-07 (2006).
    We recently considered a similar question in the ERISA
    context. See Leeson v. Transamerica Disability Income Plan,
    
    671 F.3d 969
    , 979 (9th Cir. 2012) (holding that whether a
    plaintiff is a plan participant for purposes of ERISA is a sub-
    stantive element of his claim, not a prerequisite for subject
    matter jurisdiction). In Leeson, we explained that “the only
    limitation to invoking federal court jurisdiction under
    [ERISA] relates to the categories of individuals entitled to ini-
    tiate a civil action in state or federal court.” 
    Id. at 978
    ; see
    also 
    29 U.S.C. § 1132
    (a)(1)(B) (“A civil action may be
    brought . . . by a participant or beneficiary . . . to recover ben-
    efits 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.”). The definition
    of participant under ERISA, by contrast, “appears in a sepa-
    rate provision that does not speak in jurisdictional terms or
    refer in any way to the jurisdiction of the district courts.” Lee-
    son, 671 F.3d at 978 (internal quotation marks omitted). It
    thus “serves [only] to identify those plaintiffs who may be
    entitled to relief, not to limit the authority of federal courts to
    adjudicate claims under ERISA.” Id.
    [7] Here, like the definition of “participant” under ERISA,
    the ADEA’s age requirement appears in a separate provision
    that “does not speak in jurisdictional terms.” Id. (internal quo-
    tation marks omitted); see also 
    29 U.S.C. § 631
    (a) (“The pro-
    7858         DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN
    hibitions in this chapter shall be limited to individuals who are
    at least 40 years of age.”). Accordingly, we hold that the age
    requirement does not affect this court’s subject matter juris-
    diction. See Leeson, 671 F.3d at 979; see also Arbaugh, 
    546 U.S. at 516
     (explaining that “when Congress does not rank a
    statutory limitation on coverage as jurisdictional, courts
    should treat the restriction as nonjurisdictional in character”).
    Because AT&T failed to raise this issue during administrative
    review, in the district court or in it its response brief to this
    court, the age issue is waived.
    B.   The ADEA and Kalvinskas Do Not Prohibit the
    Offset
    [8] Applying the ADEA, we hold that the offset does not
    violate the ADEA or our decision in Kalvinskas. Kalvinskas
    involved employer Caltech’s attempt to offset an employee’s
    LTD benefits with monthly retirement benefits for which the
    employee was eligible, but which he could not actually
    receive unless he retired, which he had not yet done. See 
    96 F.3d at 1307
    . We held that such an offset violated § 4(f)(2) of
    the ADEA, 
    29 U.S.C. § 623
    (f)(2), because it coerced the
    employee to retire in order to receive the full value of the off-
    set. See 
    id. at 1307-08
    .
    We also held that Caltech’s policy was not protected under
    an ADEA safe harbor applicable to employers that “provide[ ]
    a bona fide employee benefit plan or plans under which long-
    term disability benefits received by an individual are reduced
    by any pension benefits (other than those attributable to
    employee contributions) . . . paid to the individual that the
    individual voluntarily elects to receive,” 
    29 U.S.C. § 623
    (l)(3)
    (emphasis added). See Kalvinskas, 
    96 F.3d at 1309-10
    . The
    safe harbor is designed to prevent an employee from double-
    dipping by receiving both disability and pension benefits at
    the same time. See 
    id. at 1309
    . Caltech’s plan had the effect
    of forcing its employee to retire, triggering concurrent pay-
    DAY v. AT&T DISABILITY INCOME PLAN                      7859
    ments of disability and pension benefits, contrary to the safe
    harbor’s purpose. See 
    id. at 1309-10
    .
    [9] The circumstances here are distinguishable. Day’s rol-
    lover election was independent of any retirement decision.
    Unlike Mr. Kalvinskas, under AT&T’s plan Day would have
    received full LTD benefits without having to retire.5 Addition-
    ally, Day arguably would achieve the kind of double-dipping
    the ADEA safe harbor is designed to allow employers to pre-
    vent. If Day’s interpretation of the Plan were correct, he
    would be able to roll over his pension benefits into an IRA,
    continue to receive full LTD benefits and have the option of
    withdrawing from his IRA (albeit at the cost of a tax penalty),
    thus circumventing the Plan’s attempt to prevent double-
    dipping. We therefore hold that Sedgwick’s decision to offset
    Day’s LTD benefits did not violate the ADEA or Kalvinskas.
    V.    Conclusion
    The district court properly applied an abuse of discretion
    standard of review and correctly affirmed the administrator’s
    decision to offset Day’s LTD benefits by the amount of his
    pension benefits distribution. Day failed to show violations of
    ERISA’s notice requirements or the ADEA. The judgment of
    the district court is therefore affirmed.6
    AFFIRMED.
    5
    We also conclude that the district court did not err in finding that
    “there is no evidence that [Day’s] election to rollover his lump-sump pen-
    sion benefit into an IRA account was not fully voluntary.” See Abatie, 
    458 F.3d at 962
    .
    6
    To the extent Day requests attorney’s fees for the time spent seeking
    LTD benefits from the Plan while this case was stayed in the district court,
    his request is moot because the district court recently ruled on his entitle-
    ment to fees for this period. To the extent Day requests fees for time spent
    pursuing summary judgment, he is not a prevailing party and is not there-
    fore entitled to fees.