Limitations Period for ERISA Pension Benefits Claim Accrues On Date When Plaintiff Should Have Received Benefits

The accrual date for the statute of limitations in pension benefits and other denial of benefits cases under ERISA continues to be a critically important issue in ERISA class action litigation.  On February 1, 2011, Magistrate Judge Sorokin in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a favorable decision for plans and plan sponsors when he held in Kingsbury v. Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc. and Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc. Retirement Plan, Civil Action No. 10-11279 (LTS) [ruling link], that the statute of limitations in a denial of pension benefit case accrues when a plan "clearly and unequivocally repudiates the plaintiff's claim for benefits and that repudiation is known, or should be known, to the plaintiff." Applying that principle, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, concluding that the limitations period accrued when the Plan clearly repudiated the plaintiff's claim for benefits by not paying her deceased sister a pension upon turning age 65.

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