Gerald Burke and James R. Novak v. Latrobe Steel Company

OPINION OF THE COURT

WEIS, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents another variation of the question whether the court or contractual arbitration is the proper forum for resolving pensioners’ ERISA claims. In this case, although an arbitrator had ruled in favor of most of their plan interpretation contentions, plaintiff pensioners nonetheless pressed their allegation of statutory violations in the district court. We conclude that the arbitration requirement does not preclude resort to a judicial forum even though there may be a factual overlap between contractual and statutory claims. Accordingly,…