What is the test for a defined benefit pension plan surplus?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Lomas v. Rio Algom Limited, 2008 CanLII 2596 (ON SCDC):
In Buschau, Deschamps J. for the majority described defined benefit plans and discussed the question of surplus concluding, consistent with established jurisprudence, that while a defined benefit pension plan is in operation, individuals entitled to the surplus assets do not have a specific interest in them. The right to surplus is crystallized only when the surplus becomes ascertainable upon termination of the plan. See Schmidt v. Air Products Canada Ltd., 1994 CanLII 104 (SCC), [1994] 2 S.C.R. 611, [1994] S.C.J. No. 48.
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