Viewpoints: Portfolio Company Pension Liabilities
New York partner Bradd Williamson, Global Chair of Latham’s Benefits, Compensation & Employment Practice, and Chicago partner Robin Struve discuss Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry...more
First Circuit: Two affiliated funds did not form an implied partnership liable for pension obligations of a portfolio company, but private equity funds can still be subject to controlled group pension liability...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a long-awaited decision with significant impact for the private equity industry, in Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund, the United States Court of...more
The First Circuit, however, disagreed with the lower court. Analyzing the multi-factor test for establishing partnership status under federal tax court precedent and noting the lack of other formal guidance from regulators or...more
The Private Equity Practice has been getting an increasing number of calls related to the decision made earlier this spring (Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New Eng. Teamsters & Trucking Indus. Pension Fund, 2016 US Dist....more
First Circuit holds that an investment fund may be responsible for controlled group pension liabilities of portfolio companies. On July 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a significant decision...more
The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the Sun Capital Partners case may be of concern to private equity funds and other investment funds that acquire or invest in portfolio companies with...more
In Sun Capital Partners III LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund, No. 12-2312, 2013 WL 3814984 (1st Cir. July 24, 2013), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit effectively found that the...more
On July 24, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that a private equity investment fund was engaged in a "trade or business" under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA)...more
In Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund, a U.S. district court in Massachusetts held that investment funds managed by private equity firm Sun Capital Advisors, Inc. (“Sun...more