(September 19, 2017, 10:50 AM EDT) -- PHILADELPHIA — A majority of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 15 held that an ambiguous pension plan accords the plan administrator discretion to interpret the plan terms and the mere existence of a conflict of interest is not sufficient enough to raise skepticism of the administrator's calculation of a monthly pension payment for a retiree who was deemed totally disabled 15 years before his retirement (John E. Dowling v. Pension Plan for Salaried Employees of Union Pacific Corporation and affiliates, et al., No. 16-1977, 3rd Cir., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 17863)....