Federal Pension Insurer Wins Appeal Over Lump Sum Benefit Denial

The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. defeated a lawsuit by a former Penn Traffic Co. executive who says he was wrongly denied a lump sum pension distribution in connection with his company’s bankruptcy and the insurer’s takeover of his retirement plan, according to a D.C. Circuit decision issued Tuesday.

The PBGC’s denial of Joseph Fisher’s lump sum request was based on a reasonable interpretation of federal regulations prohibiting lump sum pension distributions “in anticipation of plan termination,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled.

Fisher argued this regulation was inconsistent with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ...