29 U.S.C. § 1392
Section 1392 · Obligation to contribute
This is § 4212 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 136 court decisions — leading case Bay Area Laundry & Dry Cleaning Pension Trust Fund v. Ferbar Corp. of California, Inc. (1997)
Most recently applied in Allied Painting & Decorating Inc v. Intl Painters & Allied Trades Industry Pension (July 2024)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 29 U.S.C. § 1401 · 29 U.S.C. § 1381 · 29 U.S.C. § 1399
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of this part, the term “obligation to contribute” means an obligation to contribute arising—
(1) under one or more collective bargaining (or related) agreements, or
(2) as a result of a duty under applicable labor-management relations law, but
does not include an obligation to pay withdrawal liability under this section or to pay delinquent contributions.
Payments of withdrawal liability under this part shall not be considered contributions for purposes of this part.
If a principal purpose of any transaction is to evade or avoid liability under this part, this part shall be applied (and liability shall be determined and collected) without regard to such transaction.