GILLIAM v. NEVADA POWER COMPANY
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in GILLIAM v. NEVADA POWER COMPANY, No. 04-17201, a federal appeal. The panel consisted of Melvin Brunetti, Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, and Stephen S. Trott, Circuit Judges.
O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:
We are asked to decide whether severance pay should be included as “earnings” for purposes of calculating an employee’s retirement benefits. I In 1974 Cynthia K. Gilliam (”Gilliam”) began working for Nevada Power Company, an investor-owned public utility that provides electric service to southern Nevada. She ultimately was promoted to Vice President of Retail Customer Operations in 1993, where she remained until 1999. In 1986, Nevada Power Company established the Nevada Power Company Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (”NPC Plan”), a non-qualified pension plan intended to provide retirement benefits to certain highly-compensated executives selected by the Board of Directors. In 1989, the Board made Gilliam a participant in the NPC Plan. In anticipation of a possible merger, Gilliam and Nevada Power Company executed a three-year employment agreement in 1998. The agreement provided that Gilliam would . . .