Court Opinion

ID: 9481744
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:30:09.831806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:32.704957
License: Public Domain

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
This case presents a narrow issue, but one of first impression within our circuit, an issue upon which the circuits are split: does a plaintiff’s claim for employment benefits under section 510 of ERISA more closely resemble an employment discrimination claim or a breach of contract claim?
Courts have consistently concluded that an employee’s right to the benefits secured *780by ERISA is a contractual right. The majority does not dispute this, yet it still concludes that an employer’s action in depriving the employee of that right is more analogous to the tort claims of wrongful discharge or employment discrimination than to a breach of contract action.
Applying Texas’s two-year statute of limitations for tort actions, the majority concludes that the plaintiff’s claim for relief in the ease before us was filed untimely, and it affirms the summary judgment order issued against him. Because I would have held that Texas’s four-year statute of limitations for contract actions was applicable and allowed the plaintiff to pursue his claim for relief, I respectfully dissent.
I
The plaintiff, William McClure, alleges that his employer, Zoecon, Inc., terminated his employment to prevent him from taking advantage of the health care, welfare, and life insurance benefits to which he was entitled as an employee of Zoecon. McClure brought an action against Zoecon invoking section 510 of ERISA, which makes it illegal for an employer to interfere with protected rights under a given employee benefit plan. See 29 U.S.C. § 1140. Since section 510 does not provide for a statute of limitations, courts must apply the limitations period for the state law most analogous to section 510. See Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-67, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 1942, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985). The issue presented for our consideration asks whether a violation of section 510 is more equivalent to a cause of action in contract or a cause of action in tort.
II
An appropriate method for selecting the state law most analogous to McClure’s section 510 action is to examine the elements of the cause of action. See Garcia, 471 U.S. at 268, 105 S.Ct. at 1943. The nature of the employer’s duty of non-interference under section 510 is rooted in the employee’s right to benefits provided by an ERISA plan. As noted by the majority, several courts have defined this right as a contractual right. See Majority Opinion at 778-79 n. 3; see also Held v. Manufacturers Hanover Leasing Corp., 912 F.2d 1197, 1207 (10th Cir.1990); Dameron v. Sinai Hosp. of Baltimore, Inc., 815 F.2d 975, 981 (4th Cir.1987). Given that the right to benefits under an ERISA plan has been defined as a contractual right, I find it anomalous to suggest, as the majority does, that the employer’s duty not to deprive the employee of those contractual rights is a tort. If the right to benefits is contractual then the corresponding duty to provide those benefits must also be contractual.
The majority’s sole justification for classifying a section 510 action as a “tort” is that the statute uses the words “discharge” and “discriminate.” See Majority Opinion at 778. These words, however, are nothing more than red herrings. An employer’s decision to selectively breach a contract with employee X rather than employee Y may be described as discrimination against employee X but that does not change the fact that the essence of the cause of action remains in contract. For the purposes of selecting an appropriate statute of limitations, our focus must remain on the rights and duties involved and not on the actions taken by the parties.
Ill
I would have followed the lead of the Eleventh and Eighth Circuits in classifying a section 510 action as a contract action for the purposes of applying a statute of limitations. See Heideman v. PFL, Inc., 904 F.2d 1262, 1267 (8th Cir.1990), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 111 S.Ct. 676, 112 L.Ed.2d 668 (1991); Clark v. Coats & Clark, Inc., 865 F.2d 1237, 1242 (11th Cir.1989). Since, Texas provides for a four-year statute of limitations for contract actions, I would have concluded that McClure’s request for relief was timely filed. See Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 16.004 (Vernon 1986) (statute of limitations for contract actions). Under such circumstances, I would have reversed the district court’s summary judgment order and remanded the case for further proceedings.