Mead Corp. v. Tilley
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 22, 1989 Decided June 5, 1989
Full case name	Mead Corp. v. Tilley
Docket no.	87-1868
Citations	490 U.S. 714 (more) 109 S. Ct. 2156; 104 L. Ed. 2d 796; 1989 U.S. LEXIS 2709
Case history
Prior	Tilley v. Mead Corp., 815 F.2d 989 (4th Cir. 1987); cert. granted, 488 U.S. 815 (1988).
Subsequent	Tilley v. Mead Corp., 927 F.2d 756 (4th Cir. 1991); cert. denied, 505 U.S. 1212 (1992).
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Rehnquist, Brennan, White, Blackmun, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy
Dissent	Stevens
Laws applied
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.

Mead Corp. v. Tilley, 490 U.S. 714 (1989), is a US labor law case, concerning occupational pensions.^[1]

Justice Thurgood Marshall, writing for the Court, held that only after an employer has met PBGC conditions to fund plans can it recoup ‘excess’ funds that would not need to cover promised benefits.

Justice John P. Stevens dissented.

In my opinion the early retirement benefits that respondents seek are contingent liabilities that under both ERISA and the Plan must be satisfied before plan assets revert to the employer. Section 4044(d) of ERISA provides that residual assets of a plan may revert to the employer only if three conditions are satisfied, including that "all liabilities of the plan to participants and their beneficiaries have been satisfied" and "the plan provides for such a distribution in these circumstances." 29 U.S.C. § 1344(d). Under the Plan, "[a]ny surplus remaining in the Retirement Fund, due to actuarial error, after the satisfaction of all benefit rights or contingent rights accrued under the Plan, . . . shall . . . be returnable to [Mead]." App. 63 (Plan, Art. XIII, § 4(f)).^[2]

• United States labor law

• Text of Mead Corp. v. Tilley, 490 U.S. 714 (1989) is available from: CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)