Mealey's (February 21, 2018, 11:33 AM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 denied a petition for writ of certiorari filed by a retired worker seeking a ruling on whether the administrator of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act-governed pension plan “may ignore a general rule that is expressly stated in the plan . . . and substitute a different rule, thereby creating an exception to the general rule that does not otherwise exist in the plan itself” (John E. Dowling v. Pension Plan for Salaried Employee of Union Pacific Corporation and Affiliates, et al., No. 17-1010, U.S. Sup.)....