Overview
The Supreme Court has held that the Yard-Man line of cases, “a thumb on the scale” in favor of construing retiree health benefits provided through collective bargaining as irrevocable lifetime promises, is “not compatible with ordinary principles of contract law.” The Court agreed unanimously that the "Yard-Man inferences," which treated lifetime benefits as the probable intention of the bargaining parties, had no sound basis in fact or law. A separate concurring opinion by four Justices indicated that there may be strong disagreement about how "ordinary principles of contract law" apply to particular situations.
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