A unanimous Supreme Court is ordering lower courts to take a new look at a dispute over a chemical company's efforts to cut costs in its health plan for retired workers.
Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday wrote the court's opinion that threw out a judgment in favour of the retirees of the Point Pleasant Polyester Plant in Apple Grove, West Virginia. M&G Polymers USA LLC is the current owner of the facility.
Lower courts ruled that some retirees had been promised lifetime, cost-free health benefits.
The Supreme Court did not decide whether the courts came to the right conclusion, only that they employed faulty legal reasoning in interpreting a 15-year-old agreement dealing with retiree pensions and other benefits.
The case is M&G Polymers USA LLC v. Tackett, 13-1010.
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