ARTICLE VI
Miscellaneous
6.1 No Guarantee of Employment, etc. Neither the creation of the Plan nor anything contained herein shall be construed as giving any Participant hereunder or other employees of the Employer any right to remain in the employ of the Employer.
6.2 Assignment Not Permitted. Payment of benefits hereunder to Participants (or beneficiaries) shall be made only to them and upon their personal receipts or endorsements and such benefits shall not be assignable by them.
6.3 Absence of Trust. Benefits under the Plan shall be paid from the Employer’s general assets and any claim of a Participant or beneficiary for benefits under the Plan shall be as an unsecured general creditor and no participant or beneficiary shall have any beneficial ownership interest or secured interest in any of the Employer’s assets as a result of the creation of the Plan.
6.4 Controlling Law. To the extent not preempted by the laws of the United States of America, the laws of the State of Wisconsin shall be the controlling state law in all matters relating to the Plan and shall apply.
6.5 Severability. If any provisions of the Plan shall be held illegal or invalid for any reason, said illegality or invalidity shall not affect the remaining parts of the Plan, but this Plan shall be construed and enforced as if said illegal and invalid provisions had never been included herein.
6.6 Limitations on Provisions. The provisions of the Plan and any benefits payable hereunder shall be limited as described herein. Any benefit payable under the Pension Plan shall be paid solely in accordance with the terms and provisions of the Pension Plan, and nothing in the Plan shall operate or be construed in any way to modify, amend, or affect the terms and provisions of the Pension Plan.
6.7 Other Agreements. Nothing contained herein shall alter the terms of any other agreement between the Employer and any Participant hereunder.
6.8 Gender and Number. Masculine gender shall include the feminine, and the singular shall include the plural, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
6.9 Withholding. Notwithstanding Section 6.2, the Employer shall withhold from any amounts payable hereunder any taxes or other amounts required by any governmental authority to be withheld.
6.10 Facility of Payment. If, in Weyco Group, Inc.’s judgment, any person entitled to make an election or to receive payment of a benefit is physically, mentally, or legally prevented from so doing, Weyco Group, Inc. may make such election or may authorize payment of such benefit to any person who, or institution which, in Weyco Group, Inc.’s judgment, is responsible for caring for the person entitled to the benefit. If an amount becomes distributable to a minor or a person under legal disability, Weyco Group, Inc. may direct that such distribution may be made to such person without the intervention of any legal guardian or conservator, to a relative of such person for the benefit of such person or to the legal guardian or conservator of such person. Any such distributions shall constitute a full discharge with respect to Weyco Group, Inc., and Weyco Group, Inc. shall not be required to see to the application of any distribution so made.
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6.11 Identity of Payee. If at any time any doubt exists as to the identity of any person entitled to payment of any benefit hereunder or as to the amount or time of any such payment, such sum shall be held by Weyco Group, Inc. until the further order of Weyco Group, Inc. or until final order of a court of competent jurisdiction may direct Weyco Group, Inc. to pay such sum into a court of competent jurisdiction in accordance with any lawful procedure in such case made and provided.
6.12 Evidence Conclusive. Weyco Group, Inc. and any person or persons involved in the administration of the Plan shall be entitled to rely upon any certification, statement, or representation made or evidence furnished by any person with respect to his age or other facts required to be determined under any of the provisions of the Plan, and shall not be liable on account of the payment of any monies or the doing of any act or failure to act in reliance thereon. Any such certification, statement, representation, or evidence, upon being duly made or furnished, shall be conclusively binding upon the person furnishing it but not upon Weyco Group, Inc. or any other person involved in the administration of the Plan. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent any of such parties from contesting any such certification, statement, representation, or evidence or to relieve any person from the duty of submitting satisfactory proof of his age or such other fact.
6.13 Claims Procedure. The Participant or the Participant’s beneficiary (a “Claimant”) may file a written request for benefits or claim with Weyco Group, Inc. under this Plan. In the event of any dispute with respect to such a claim, the following claim procedures shall apply:
(1) Weyco Group, Inc., acting as the administrator under this Plan, shall notify the Claimant within 90 days of receipt by Weyco Group, Inc. of a written claim of its allowance or denial, unless the Claimant receives written notice from Weyco Group, Inc. prior to the end of the initial 90-day period indicating that special circumstances require an extension of time (by not more than 90 days) for decision. A written notice of decision shall be provided to the Claimant and if the claim is denied in whole or in part, the notice shall contain the following information: the specific reasons for the denial; specific reference to pertinent provisions of the Plan on which the denial is based; if applicable, a description of any additional material information necessary to perfect the claim and an explanation of why such material or information is necessary; and an explanation of the claim review procedure.
(2) A Claimant is entitled to request a review of any denial of his claim by Weyco Group, Inc. The request for review must be submitted in writing within 60 days of mailing of notice of the denial. Absent a request for review within the 60-day period, the claim will be deemed to be conclusively denied. The Claimant or the Claimant’s representative shall be entitled to review all pertinent documents, and to submit issues and comments orally and in writing. Weyco Group, Inc. shall render a review decision in writing, within 60 days after receipt of a request for a review, provided that, in special circumstances (such as the necessity of holding a hearing) Weyco Group, Inc. may extend the time for decision by not more than 60 days upon written notice to the Claimant. The Claimant shall receive written notice of the separate review decision of Weyco Group, Inc., together with specific reasons for the decision and reference to the pertinent provisions of this Plan.
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(3) A final decision by Weyco Group, Inc. pursuant to this claims procedure shall be final and binding upon all parties and shall not be subject to de novo judicial review.
6.14 Status of Plan Under ERISA. The Plan is intended to be an unfunded plan maintained by an employer primarily for the purpose of providing deferred compensation for a select group of management or highly compensated employees, as described in Section 201(2), Section 301(a)(3), Section 401(a)(1) and Section 4021(b)(6) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended.
6.15 Name and Address Changes. Each Participant shall keep his name and address on file with the Employer and shall promptly notify the Employer of any changes in his name or address. All notices required or contemplated by this Plan shall be deemed to have been given to a Participant if mailed with adequate postage prepaid thereon addressed to him at his last address on file with the Employer. If any check in payment of a benefit hereunder (which was mailed to the last address of the payee as shown on the Employer’s records) is returned unclaimed, further payments shall be discontinued unless evidence is furnished that the recipient is still alive.
6.16 Rule Limiting Participant Elections. Any election by the Participant as to timing or form of payment shall be valid only if made irrevocably at least 6 months prior to the Participant’s termination of employment.
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ARTICLE VII
Change of Control
7.1 Definition Change of Control. For purposes of this Plan, a “Change of Control” shall occur:
(1) if any person or group of persons (as defined in Section 13(d)(3) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and regulations thereunder), other than the group consisting of members of the family of Thomas W. Florsheim and their descendants or trusts for their benefit (the “Florsheim Group”), directly or indirectly controls in excess of 15% of the voting power of the outstanding common stock of the Employer;
(2) in the event of the consolidation or merger of the Employer with or into another corporation or entity which is not a wholly owned subsidiary of the Employer;
(3) in the event of the sale or transfer of all or substantially all of the operating assets of the Employer;
(4) in the event of the replacement of a majority of the existing members of the Employer’s Board of Directors by persons not nominated by the Board of Directors or the Florsheim Group, or
(5) in the event of any amendment to Section 2 of Article III of the Employer’s bylaws to enlarge the number of the directors of the Employer if the change was not supported by the existing Board of Directors or the Florsheim Group,
7.2 Payments in Event of Change of Control.
(a) Within 30 days after the occurrence of a Change of Control, a lump sum payment shall be made to each Participant hereunder who is in the employ of the Employer on the date the Change of Control occurs. Such lump sum payment shall be the actuarial equivalent of the pension which would be payable to the Participant pursuant to Section 3.1 or 4.1, whichever is applicable, if the Participant had terminated employment on the date the Change of Control occurred and had commenced to receive the pension accrued by him to the date of the Change of Control on the first day of the month following his 65th birthday or, if the Participant is already 65, the first day of the month following the date of the Change of Control. For purposes of calculating the amount which would be payable to the Participant under the preceding sentence, the 5 year of service requirement in Sections 3.1(c)(1) and 4.1(c)(1) shall be ignored and the provisions of Sections 3.1(c)(3) and 4.1(c)(3) shall be ignored.
(b) Within 30 days after the occurrence of a Change of Control, a lump sum payment shall be made to each Participant hereunder who is no longer in the employ of the Employer on the date the Change of Control occurs and who has neither been paid a lump sum distribution of his benefits hereunder nor otherwise commenced to receive payment of his benefits hereunder. Such lump sum payment shall be the actuarial equivalent of the pension which would be payable to the Participant pursuant to Section 3.1 or 4.1, whichever is applicable, based on the benefits accrued by the Participant hereunder to the time of the Participant’s termination of employment on the assumption that the Participant would commence to receive the pension accrued by him on the first day of the month following his 65th birthday.
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(c) Within 30 days after the occurrence of a Change of Control, a lump sum payment shall be made to each Participant hereunder who is no longer in the employ of the Employer and who is in pay status hereunder receiving monthly benefit payments. Such lump sum payments shall be the actuarial equivalent of the pension payments remaining to be paid to the Participant hereunder.
(d) Actuarial equivalency for purposes of this Section 7.2 shall be determined under the factors for single sum distributions set forth in the Pension Plan.
(e) Payment under this Section 7.2 shall be in lieu of any and all amounts otherwise payable to or with respect to the Participant under this Plan.
(f) In the event the Participant should die before the lump sum payment called for by this Section 7.2 is paid, such payment shall be made to the Participant’s surviving spouse or, if none, to the Participant’s estate.
(g) In the event a Participant has died prior to the occurrence of a Change of Control, and such Participant’s spouse is entitled to a benefit under Section 3.3, or 4.3, whichever is applicable, such spouse shall in lieu thereof, and within 30 days after the occurrence of the Change of Control, be paid a lump sum cash amount which is the actuarial equivalent of the payment the spouse would have been entitled to under Section 3.3(b)(i), (ii) or (iii) or Section 4.3(b) (i), (ii) or (iii), whichever is applicable.
7.3 Plan Termination. No Participant shall accrue any additional benefits hereunder from and after the date of the Change of Control. Once the payments called for by Section 7.2 have been made, the Plan shall be automatically terminated and no further payments shall be due any person hereunder.
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