Compliance: <i>Heimeshoff</i> highlights the importance of contractual limitation periods in ERISA plans
Since Heimeshoff, three district court cases have already held that lawsuits to recover ERISA plan benefits were barred by the plans contractual limitation period.
February 26, 2014 at 03:00 AM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
The Supreme Court's recent decision in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Company held that an ERISA plan's contractual limitation period can effectively be used to shorten a plan participant's time to file suit following a claim denial.
The contractual limitation period at issue in Heimeshoff precluded a plan participant from bringing suit more than three years after “proof of loss” was due under the plan's terms. ERISA, however, has been judicially construed to require that plan participants exhaust administrative remedies through an internal review and appeal process before a participant can sue to recover benefits. Notably, this means that under Heimeshoff, a contractual limitation period can begin running during the administrative review process and before the cause of action, or right to sue even accrues.
The unanimous Heimeshoff decision affirmed the 2nd Circuit's ruling that the three-year contractual limitation period for filing suit to recover benefits under an ERISA plan is enforceable even though that limitation period begins to run before the participant's right to sue accrues. The court concluded that “[a]bsent a controlling statute to the contrary, a participant and a plan may agree by contract to a particular limitations period, even one that starts to run before the cause of action accrues, as long as the period is reasonable.”
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Trending Stories
- 1The Law Firm Disrupted: For Big Law Names, Shorter is Sweeter
- 2Wine, Dine and Grind (Through the Weekend): Summer Associates Thirst For Experience in 'Real Matters'
- 3The 'Biden Effect' on Senior Attorneys: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
- 4BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 5First Lawsuit Filed Alleging Contraceptive Depo-Provera Caused Brain Tumor
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250