However, plaintiffs never properly brought this assertion before the court below, and did not otherwise challenge defendant's claim that defendant was not a plan fiduciary. For these reasons, for purposes of this appeal we decline to charge defendant with the special duties of a plan fiduciary. The trial court erred in treating defendant's failure to pay health insurance premiums for each plaintiff as one-time occurrences, dating each from the moment each plaintiff began receiving benefits for purposes of applying the statute of limitations. On remand, the court should liken plaintiffs' retirement benefits to installment contracts, each deficient payment of benefits marking the time from which a separate claim accrues. Accordingly, plaintiffs may pursue their claims for any unprovided benefits dating from the six years before plaintiffs filed suit.
Defendant is free to raise the statute of limitations as a defense to any earlier claims.
The release of this Court's ruling in Clexton, supra has no bearing on the accrual date of any claim, nor does defendant's agent's memorandum of November 1991 revive any claim that falls outside the six-year limitations period as described above. Reversed and remanded for further proceedings. We do not retain jurisdiction. This particularly concerns us in that the present and future consequences of the instant case implicate large sums of public money for which defendant is responsible. We are disappointed not only by defendant's failure to defend the public treasury, but also by defendant's failure to assist this Court in resolving this important case.