Holding Company Escapes Pension Fund’s $1 Million Liability Suit

A pension fund seeking more than $1 million in withdrawal liability from a New Jersey printing outfit can’t go after a related entity that did nothing but own and lease property, a federal judge held.

The entity doesn’t qualify as a “trade or business” that can owe withdrawal liability under federal pension law because it wasn’t aimed at turning a profit and didn’t regularly engage in business activity, Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer said in a post-trial opinion issued April 10. Wilrick LLC had no employees or bookkeeper and “functioned exclusively as a passive investment holding company” with virtually no ...