Trusts — Trustees — Powers — Duties — Trustees of Anthracite Health and Welfare Fund — Duty to process pension application to a decision.
In this appeal from a decree directing the trustees of the Anthracite Health and Welfare Fund to pay the plaintiff a pension in which defendants complained that (1) the United Mine Workers of America was an essential party to the case, (2) the Union had not certified the plaintiff as a member in good standing and (3) plaintiff had not exhausted his remedies of appeal within the United Mine Workers of America, inasmuch as he had not appealed from the decision of the International Executive Board denying membership to the plaintiff in the Union to the floor of the International Convention of the Union, it was Held, that the Trustees of the Anthracite Health and Welfare Fund had a non-delegable duty to determine whether an applicant is entitled to a pension and that where the Union refused to certify an applicant as a member, the trustees are obliged to make their own investigation and final decision when the applicant shows that the Union decision was arbitrary or based on a mistake of fact or law; and the decree was affirmed.
OPINION PER CURIAM, March 18, 1957:
The final decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County is affirmed on the Adjudication and Opinion by President Judge HOBAN as reported in 7 Pa. D. C.2d 613