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5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.
A pension plan participant's action to recover plan benefits, filed 10 years after the initial denial of his request for benefits, was time-barred by the applicable New Jersey state law limitations period, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia (CA-3) has ruled in Kapp v. Trucking Employees of North Jersey Welfare Fund, Inc.-Pension Fund.
Plan terms
A pension fund required a participant to have at least 15 years of "combined pension credits" to qualify for certain benefits. In 1999, the fund denied the participant's benefits application because he had attained only ten years of credits before experiencing a break in service. In 2007, the participant sought reconsideration of the denial. After a second denial of his application, the participant filed suit in 2009, seeking to recover pension benefits under ERISA §502(a)(1) and §502(a)(3).
State law limitations period
The Third Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling in favor of the fund. Since there is no ERISA limitations period for actions under ERISA §502, courts apply the statute of limitations for the state claim most analogous to the ERISA claim. In this instance, the New Jersey six-year limitations period for contract actions was the appropriate period. The fund's 1999 denial letter provided the "clear repudiation" of the request for benefits necessary to trigger the limitations period.
Alternative theory rejected
For the first time on appeal, the participant argued that he also sought equitable relief for a breach of fiduciary duty claim under ERISA §502(a)(3) stemming from the fund's alleged violation of ERISA's cliff vesting requirements. Under ERISA §413, claimants must file suit within three years of their "actual knowledge" of such a breach. The participant claimed that he had no such knowledge until he conferred with another participant in 2007.
While this may be a plausible theory, the court explained, the participant waived his right to pursue it by waiting until the appellate proceeding to raise it.
For more information, visit http://www.wolterskluwerlb.com/rbcs.
For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.
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