Opinion ID: 772353
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Date of the last action which constituted part of the breach

Text: 44 Having concluded that the six-year limitations period is applicable to plaintiffs' claims, we must determine when that period began to run, i.e., the date of the last action which constituted a part of the breach. Unisys insists that this text focuses on the last action of the fiduciary which was in violation of its fiduciary duty. While it does not maintain that the current record pinpoints the date upon which the last alleged misrepresentation was made, it correctly points out that insofar as decisions to retire are concerned, a retiree's date of retirement is necessarily the last date upon which Unisys could have made a relevant misrepresentation or upon which a clarifying communication could have prevented detrimental reliance. Unisys therefore asks us to affirm the District Court's grant of summary judgment against those members of the plaintiffs' class who retired more than six years before the date on which their case was originally filed, in 1992. 45 The retirees, on the other hand, contend that the date of the last action which constituted part of the breach was November 3, 1992, the date on which Unisys announced the termination of its lifetime plans. They argue that § 1113 must be interpreted in this manner because no actual harm occurred and thus no legitimate claim of breach of fiduciary duty arose until Unisys terminated the plans that it initially had misrepresented. Even though the retirees concede that the termination of the old plans was a non-fiduciary act, they nevertheless insist that a non-fiduciary act can constitute part of the breach or violation of fiduciary duty if it is the final act that gives rise to a cause of action. 46 In Adams v. Freedom Forge Corp., 204 F.3d 475 (3d Cir. 2000), this Court recently reviewed the elements of a breach of fiduciary duty claim like that of the plaintiffs here. We found the controlling precepts in our prior decision in this case: 47 An employee may recover for a breach of fiduciary duty if he or she proves that an employer, acting as a fiduciary, made a material misrepresentation that would confuse a reasonable beneficiary about his or her benefits, and the beneficiary acted thereupon to his or her detriment. 48 Id. at 492, citing Unisys II, 57 F.3d at 1264. 49 Given these elements of a claim for breach of fiduciary duty in this context, it necessarily follows that any breach that may have occurred was completed, and a claim based thereon accrued, no later than the date upon which the employee relied to his detriment on the misrepresentations. Surely, any employee who sought counsel and who took early retirement based on Unisys' express assurance that she possessed guaranteed lifetime health care, thereby reducing the amount of pension she would otherwise receive, could bring suit immediately and secure rescission of her retirement or some other appropriate equitable relief. 7 Accordingly, it seems clear to us that the six-year period for such plaintiffs commenced no later than the respective dates of their retirements. 8 50 We therefore agree with the District Court that the denial of free health care coverage was not an element of the plaintiffs' claim. As the District Court pointed out, the alleged breach of fiduciary duty here concerned the counsel allegedly given or not given, and there is no causal nexus between that counsel and the denial of free health care coverage. In re Unisys Corp., 957 F. Supp. at 639. If Unisys had provided clear and accurate counsel, some retirements may not have occurred when they did, but there is no reason to believe retirees would now have free coverage. As the District Court held, Unisys had a right to terminate free health care coverage, and it exercised that right in a non-fiduciary capacity. Id. at 638. 9 51 It is not clear to us, however, that the claims of all Sperry retirees who retired before November 17, 1986, and all Burroughs retirees who retired before December 3, 1986, are barred. While the primary theory of liability being asserted here is clearly that many relied on the misrepresentations to their detriment by deciding to take voluntary retirement, as we explain hereafter, Unisys has not persuaded us that this is the only viable theory of liability. It may well be that retirees who retired before those dates relied to their detriment in making other decisions after those dates. Accordingly, the summary judgment entered by the District Court was overbroad and must be reversed. Summary judgment for Unisys would be appropriate, however, with respect to those who assert claims based solely on retirement decisions made more than six years before suit was filed.