Opinion ID: 7011521
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The ERISA Four Year Statute of Limitations

Text: In Wetzel v. Lou Ehlers Cadillac Group Long Term Disability Ins. Program, 222 F.3d 643 (9th Cir.2000) (en banc), we held that “California’s [four-year] statute of limitations for suits on written contracts ... provides the applicable statute of limitations for an ERISA cause of action based on a claim for benefits under a written contractual policy in California.” Id. at 648. We also held that “under federal law, an ERISA cause of action accrues either at the time benefits are actually denied, or when the insured has reason to know that the claim has been denied.” Id. at 649 (citations omitted). In the present case, the district court did not decide, and we need not decide, whether Unum’s June 1,1995, letter or the September 29, 1995, letter to Mogck constituted the accrual point for Mogck’s ERISA cause of action, because, in either event, Mogck’s action, filed on February 5, 1999, was filed within the applicable four-year ERISA statute of limitations.