The Fifth Circuit concluded that a plan’s three-year contractual limitations period began to accrue when a beneficiary received a letter in 2008 that prominently displayed on the first page the monthly earnings used to calculate his long term disability benefits. The Court held that the claim was time-barred because the beneficiary failed to bring his
Statute of Limitations
ERISA Administrative Appeal Barred As Untimely
By Kyle Hansen on
The First Circuit held that a plaintiff failed to timely exhaust her administrative remedies under a long-term disability plan because the plan’s 180-day time limit for submitting appeals commenced on the date the plaintiff received notice of the decision that it was going to terminate her long-term disability benefits, not the actual date her benefits…
Fifth Circuit Borrows One-Year Statute of Limitations for Section 502(c)(1) Claim
By Benjamin Flaxenburg on
The Fifth Circuit held that the statute of limitations for an ERISA § 502(c)(1) claim—a claim for penalties for failure to provide certain documents within thirty days of a written request—was subject to a one-year statute of limitations. In so holding, the Court borrowed the statute of limitations from the Louisiana Civil Code for claims…
ERISA’s Six-Year Statute of Repose for Fiduciary-Breach Claims Can Be Tolled
By Tulio Chirinos on
The Eleventh Circuit ruled that ERISA’s six-year statute of repose can be tolled by the parties even though it is a statute of repose. During pre-litigation negotiations between the U.S. Department of Labor and a trustee of an employee stock ownership plan, the parties signed a series of tolling agreements, which delayed the filing of…