Jo Ann Johnson v. State Mutual Life Assurance Co. Of America

LOKEN, Circuit Judge,

joined by LAY, Chief Judge, and ARNOLD, BOWMAN, WOLLMAN and MAGILL, Circuit Judges.

Plaintiff Jo Ann Johnson appeals from a district court order dismissing her Complaint for group life insurance benefits. 735 F.Supp. 331. Having concluded that Johnson’s Complaint is governed by Missouri’s ten-year contract statute of limitations, Mo.Ann.Stat. § 516.110(1), instead of the five-year contract statute of limitations applied by the district court, Mo.Ann.Stat. § 516.120(1), we reverse.

In October 1979, Cleveland Johnson died of a gunshot wound. At the time of his death, Mr. Johnson was a policyholder under a group policy issued by defendant State Mutual Life Assurance Co. of Amer-ica to his employer, Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. Plaintiff, Johnson’s wife, was the policy beneficiary. The employer promptly gave defendant proof of death and demanded payment to plaintiff as beneficiary of the amount owing in the case of accidental death. Thereafter, defendant paid plaintiff the death benefits under a second policy but refused to pay the $44,000 owing in the case of an accidental death under this policy on the ground that Mr. Johnson’s death resulted from an altercation in which he was the aggressor and which he should have foreseen would put his life in danger.

In May 1989, plaintiff commenced this action in Missouri state court to recover the unpaid $44,000.¹ Defendant removed the action to federal court, alleging exclusive federal jurisdiction under 29 U.S.C. § 1132 because its group policy was part of the employer’s “plan” regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”). Rather than contest Federal jurisdiction, plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint in the district court recasting her cause of action as one under ERISA. A jury trial was scheduled for late 1989 but was postponed to permit consideration of defendant’s statute of limitations motion, which the district court granted. Plaintiff then appealed. After this case was argued to a panel of the court, we issued an order, sua sponte, resubmitting it to the court en banc because of a perceived need to consider whether our prior decision in Fogerty v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 850 F.2d 430 (8th Cir.1988), should be overruled.

I.

ERISA contains no statute of limitations for actions to recover benefits under a regulated plan. The district court correctly held that it must therefore look to Missouri law for the most analogous statute of limitations, but that the characterization of plaintiffs claim for statute of limitations purposes is a question of federal law. See Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985); United Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. 696, 86 S.Ct. 1107, 16 L.Ed.2d 192 (1966).

Judge Beam in dissent urges a result not considered by the parties or the district court, namely, that this action should be characterized as a suit against a trustee for breach of trust for statute of limitations purposes, and that the five year limitations period in Mo.Ann.Stat. § 456.-220 is therefore applicable. We disagree. In the first place, this action is not for breach of trust. It involves the interpretation of an insurance policy, an asset of the employer’s plan that is excepted from the trust requirements of ERISA. See 29 U.S.C. § 1103(b); Brown v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Alabama, Inc., 898 F.2d 1556, 1561 (11th Cir.1990), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 712, 112 L.Ed.2d 701 (1991). Thus, this action is not the least bit analogous to the actions under Missouri law that are governed by Mo.Ann.Stat. § 456.220. If our search is properly for the most analogous state statute, § 456.220 is not a rational choice.

Second, it is important to note that ERISA contains an express federal statute of limitations for suits claiming breach of an ERISA trust, 29 U.S.C. § 1113. If it is appropriate as a matter of federal law to borrow a breach-of-trust statute of limitations, we should borrow the federal statute. However, Congress expressly limited § 1113 to suits claiming breach of an ERISA trustee’s fiduciary duties “under this part,” which does not include beneficiary suits under § 1132(a)(1)(B).² It cannot be consistent with congressional intent to borrow a state breach-of-trust statute of limitations to govern suits by ERISA beneficiaries, when that state statute was itself preempted by an ERISA limitations provision that is expressly not applicable to such suits.

Third, we think the dissent’s quest for statute of limitations uniformity does not warrant creating judicially what Congress intentionally did not provide in the statute. The Supreme Court’s decision in Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985), was based upon factors unique to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1871. The Supreme Court has rejected a uniform statute of limitations for actions under § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, stating, “Lack of uniformity in this area is ... unlikely to frustrate in any important way the achievement of any significant goal of labor policy.” UAW v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. at 702, 86 S.Ct. at 1111. True, the Court subsequently borrowed a uniform federal limitations period for union breach of duty suits, but only after stating that “resort to state law remains the norm for borrowing of limitations periods” unless federal law “clearly provides a closer analogy [that is] significantly more appropriate.” DelCostello v. International Bhd. of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 171-72, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2294, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983). We conclude, and the dissent apparently agrees, that suits to recover ERISA benefits should be governed by the norm, the most analogous state statute of limitations.

Finally, we question whether adoption of state breach-of-trust limitations law would achieve the dissent’s objective of ending confusion and inconsistency. In Missouri, for example, it is unlikely that § 456.220, a rather new statute, has abrogated the traditional doctrine that, “The statute of limitations [for breach of a trustee’s duty] does not begin to run until the trust is repudiated.” Senn v. Manchester Bank of St. Louis, 583 S.W.2d 119, 134 (Mo.1979). See Bogert, The Law of Trusts & Trustees § 951 (2d ed. 1982). Although that doctrine can be avoided here by treating the denial of plaintiffs death claim as a “final account,” determining when the cause of action accrued on claims for ongoing benefits from a continuing ERISA plan might prove more troublesome under traditional trust limitations law.

For the above reasons, we agree with those federal courts that have held, without exception to our knowledge, that a suit for ERISA benefits under § 1132(a)(1)(B) should be characterized as a contract action for statute of limitations purposes, unless a breach of the ERISA trustee’s fiduciary duties is alleged. Compare Jenkins v. Local 705, 713 F.2d 247, 253 (7th Cir.1983), and Dameron v. Sinai Hosp. of Baltimore, Inc., 595 F.Supp. 1404, 1413 (D.Md.1984), with Edwards v. Wilkes-Barre Pub. Co., 757 F.2d 52 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 843, 106 S.Ct. 130, 88 L.Ed.2d 107 (1985). We see no reason to reject for statute of limitations purposes the characterization that Missouri law would place on plaintiff’s claim for accidental death insurance benefits. See UAW v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. at 706, 86 S.Ct. at 1113. Therefore, we conclude that the district court properly framed the issue in this case as requiring us to decide which of Missouri’s two contract statutes of limitations is “most analogous” to plaintiff’s ERISA claim.

II.

For more than a century, Missouri has had two contract statutes of limitations. Section 516.120(1) provides that, “All actions upon contracts, obligations or liabilities, express or implied, except those mentioned in section 516.110,” must be brought within five years; Section 516.-110(1) provides that, “An action upon any writing, whether sealed or unsealed, for the payment of money or property” may be brought within ten years. The district court held that the five-year statute applies because plaintiff’s action to recover benefits under an ERISA-regulated plan is not an action upon a written promise for the payment of money within the meaning of the ten-year statute.

There are numerous Missouri cases deciding which of these two statutes of limitations applies to a particular contract claim. Many decisions applying the five-year statute contain dictum that, in our view, is inconsistent with the holdings in many other cases applying the ten-year statute. Therefore, our task is to decide which of two parallel inconsistent lines of cases the Supreme Court of Missouri would apply to the facts of this case.

The key statutory language is that limiting the ten-year statute of limitations to “an action upon any writing ... for the payment of money.” Early on, the Supreme Court of Missouri rejected a narrow interpretation of this phrase:

Defendants claim that an instrument for the payment of money or property, such as is meant by the 10 years’ statute of limitations, should acknowledge an obligation to pay which is neither conditional nor contingent.... If this position be correct, then all instruments other than notes, bonds, bills of exchange, and other written promises or obligations to pay, unconditionally, specified sums of money would be embraced by the 5 years’ statute of limitations. To this we are unable to assent.

State ex rel. Enterprise Milling Co. v. Brown, 208 Mo. 613, 106 S.W. 630, 631 (1907) (emphasis added). See also Home Ins. Co. v. Mercantile Trust Co., 219 Mo. App. 645, 284 S.W. 834, 836 (1926) (“this statute is to be broadly construed”).

In Enterprise Milling, plaintiff sued upon an attachment bond; the Missouri Supreme Court held that the ten-year statute applied despite the fact that the promise to pay was conditional at the time the bond was written. The same result was reached in Missouri, K. & T. Ry. v. American Sur. Co. of N.Y, 291 Mo. 92, 236 S.W. 657 (1921) (suit on indemnity bond; ten-year statute applies).

Like a bond, an insurance policy typically contains a written promise to pay money upon the occurrence of a specified future condition, such as death. The Missouri courts have consistently applied the ten-year statute of limitations to suits upon insurance policies. See Liebing v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of N. Y., 269 Mo. 509, 191 S.W. 260 (1916) (life insurance benefits); Edwards v. State Farm Ins. Co., 574 S.W.2d 505 (Mo.Ct.App.1978) (uninsured motorist benefits); Crenshaw v. Great Central Ins. Co., 527 S.W.2d 1, 4 (Mo.Ct.App.1975) (uninsured motorist benefits); Lorberg v. Jaynes, 298 S.W. 1059 (Mo.Ct.App.1927) (suit to recover assessment for policy losses). Most pertinent to this case, the ten-year statute has twice been applied to suits for group disability insurance benefits. Crawford v. Metropolitan Life, supra note 1; Adams v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 139 S.W.2d 1098 (Mo.Ct.App.1940), quashed on other grounds, State ex rel. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Hughes, 347 Mo. 549, 148 S.W.2d 576 (1941). Defendant correctly points out that these decisions contain little if any reasoning as to why the ten year statute, rather than the five year statute, applies. On the other hand, they are consistent with Enterprise Milling, and we have found no Missouri case applying the five-year statute to a suit for insurance benefits.

Under these cases, the only relevant question is whether a plaintiffs contract claim is based upon a written promise to pay money. In this case, plaintiffs claim plainly satisfies that test, for defendant’s written policy provides in part: “Upon receipt of due proof that an employee has ... sustained bodily injury ... solely through external violent and accidental means ... the Company agrees to pay ... FOR LOSS OF ... Life ... The Principal Sum [$44,-000].”

The district court ignored these insurance and bond cases and focused instead on restrictive language found in Missouri cases applying the five year-statute of limitations. First, some decisions have stated that, “[T]he essence of a promise to pay money is that it is an acknowledgment of an indebtedness, an admission of a debt due and unpaid.” Martin v. Potashnick, 358 Mo. 833, 217 S.W.2d 379, 381 (1949). Here, of course, as the district court noted, defendant’s policy does not contain an admission of indebtedness — it is a written promise to pay money if a specified condition, accidental death, occurs in the future. Second, some decisions applying the five-year statute have stated, “[W]here the obligation to pay is contingent upon proof of extrinsic facts it is not such a written promise as is contemplated by Section 516.-110(1).” Silton v. Kansas City, 446 S.W.2d 129, 132 (Mo.1969); see also Superintendent of Insur. v. Livestock Market Ins. Agency, Inc., 709 S.W.2d 897, 900 (Mo. Ct.App.1986). Again, as the district court noted, plaintiff’s claim does not satisfy this test, for it requires extrinsic proof that the event upon which the payment of money was conditioned — accidental death — has occurred. For these reasons, the district court held that plaintiff’s claim for insurance benefits was governed by Missouri’s five-year statute of limitations.

However, we do not believe that these restrictive tests accurately reflect Missouri law. In the first place, we note that Martin, Silton, and Superintendent of Insurance did not involve written promises to pay money and thus were correctly decided even under a broader construction of the ten-year statute. Second, it seems obvious to us that a rigorous application of these restrictive dicta would effectively limit the ten-year statute to promissory notes, bonds and similar instruments that contain, within the four corners of the document, an admitted obligation to pay money. Yet that is precisely what the Supreme Court of Missouri rejected in Enterprise Milling, and it is clear that in recent years the Missouri courts have continued to apply the ten-year statute to written promises to pay money on the condition that future events occur. See, e.g., St. Louis University v. Belleville, 752 S.W.2d 481 (Mo.Ct.App. 1988) (guaranty of payment for future services); Mark Twain Bank v. Platzelman, 740 S.W.2d 388 (Mo.Ct.App.1987) (continuing guaranty agreement); Joplin CMI, Inc. v. Spike’s Tool & Die, Inc., 719 S.W.2d 930 (Mo.Ct.App.1986) (option agreement payments after exercise); Edwards v. State Farm Ins. Co., supra (uninsured motorist benefits); South Side Realty Co. v. Hamblin, 387 S.W.2d 224 (Mo.Ct.App.1964) (exclusive sales agent commissions).

We conclude that the proper test, that is, the test that harmonizes the holdings in these Missouri cases, is this: if the plaintiffs contract claim is not based upon a written promise to pay money, so that any right to the payment of money must be proved by extrinsic evidence of a breach of contract, then the five-year statute applies. However, if the plaintiffs contract claim is based upon a written promise to pay money, then the ten-year statute applies “although the plaintiff may, to make out his case, be required to go beyond the terms of the writing to show performance on the part of the plaintiff and a breach on the part of the defendant.” Missouri, K. & T. Ry. v. American Sur. Co. of N.Y., supra, 236 S.W. at 663. See also Bangert v. Boise Cascade Corp., 527 F.2d 902, 906 (8th Cir.1976). Under this test, plaintiffs claim, is governed by the ten-year statute: defendant’s policy contains the written promise to pay money; extrinsic evidence is required only to show that defendant’s written promise to pay has matured.

This result is consistent with every Missouri case that has involved a claim on an insurance policy or a bond. These cases are the most analogous to the case at bar factually. We cannot conclude that the Supreme Court of Missouri, if presented with this case, would overrule this long line of authority on the basis of dicta in factually distinguishable cases such as Martin, Silton and Superintendent of Insurance.

III.

The district court’s analysis was also based, in large part, on prior federal court cases which have sought to apply these confusing Missouri precedents to the ERISA arena. Initially, there were a series of district court decisions holding that the five-year Missouri statute governed suits for unpaid contributions to ERISA-regulated plans. See Robbins v. Newman, 481 F.Supp. 1241 (E.D.Mo.1979), followed in Central States, S.E. & S. W. Areas Pen. Fund v. Aalco Exp. Co., Inc., 592 F.Supp. 664 (E.D.Mo.1984), and Central States, S.E. & S. W. Areas Pen. Fund v. King Dodge, Inc., 640 F.Supp. 1495 (E.D.Mo. 1986). Robbins was then relied upon by the district court in Fogerty v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 666 F.Supp. 167 (E.D.Mo. 1987), which held that a claim for disability benefits under an ERISA-regulated plan was governed by the five-year statute.

While Fogerty was pending on appeal, this court reversed the district court in Central States S.E. & S.W. Areas Pen. Fund v. King Dodge, Inc., 835 F.2d 1238 (8th Cir.1987). Consistent with the above analysis, this court held in King Dodge that the ten-year Missouri statute governed the trustee’s suit for unpaid contributions because “King Dodge’s promise is contained within the four corners of the writing,” even though extrinsic evidence such as the number of covered employees would be needed to establish the amount owed.³ 835 F.2d at 1240. Our decision in King Dodge is particularly significant here, for it would be anomalous if ERISA actions to enforce written promises to pay contributions into a regulated plan were governed by a more liberal statute of limitations than ERISA actions to enforce written promises to pay benefits out of a regulated plan.

Shortly after King Dodge was decided, this court affirmed the district court in Fogerty v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 850 F.2d 430 (8th Cir.1988). Without stating whether the benefit plan in question contained a written promise for the payment of money, and without noting either King Dodge or the Missouri cases holding that the ten-year statute governs suits for disability insurance benefits, the court in Fog-erty held that the five-year statute governed because “an action upon a contract in writing for the payment of money is not similar to an action for the recovery of employee benefits under ERISA.” 850 F.2d at 432.

Defendant argues, and the district court concluded, that this case is controlled by Fogerty. We cannot agree. Here, plaintiff has pled, and the policy document clearly confirms, that her contract claim is based upon defendant’s written promise to pay money. The Missouri cases relied upon in Fogerty are distinguishable on this ground, and, to the extent Fogerty relies upon dictum in those cases, we do not believe it reflects Missouri law as to claims for insurance benefits. Accordingly, Fog-erty is overruled.

This court has considerable reservations about the wisdom of a ten-year statute of limitations for a claim such as this that appears to turn upon a tragic event that occurred long ago. However, subject to whatever laches principles may apply under state law, that is a legislative question. Either Congress, by amending ERISA, or the Missouri Legislature is free to modify the statute of limitations. Until such legislative action, we are required to hold, consistent with Missouri law, that plaintiffs claim to enforce defendant’s written promise for the payment of money is governed by the ten-year statute of limitations in Mo.Ann.Stat. § 516.110(1).

The judgment of the district court is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

1 . Under Missouri case law, plaintiff pleaded a prima facie case for accidental death benefits by alleging that the insured met his death by violence; defendant then had the burden of proving that its policy exclusion for "loss which is caused or contributed to by intentionally self-inflicted injury” applies. See Stogsdill v. General Amer. Life Ins. Co., 541 S.W.2d 696, 698-699 (Mo.Ct.App. 1976).

The record does not reveal why plaintiff waited nearly ten years to commence this action. Defendant has not alleged any prejudice resulting from the delay, although counsel for defendant stated at oral argument that the witnesses to the altercation had become unavailable by the time this action was commenced. The opinion in one Missouri case stated that laches may bar a claim for insurance benefits even if it is filed within the ten-year statute of limitations. See Crawford v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 167 S.W.2d 915, 922 (Mo.Ct.App.1943). Given the facts of this case, the district court may be required on remand to determine whether that dictum would be followed by the Missouri courts today.

2 . The reference to "this part” is to "Part 4— Fiduciary Responsibility" of Subtitle B, Sub-chapter I, of ERISA. Section 1132 authorizing beneficiary suits is in the civil enforcement provisions of Part 5.

3 . Defendant argues that King Dodge is distinguishable because the defendant did not deny its liability for future contributions and thus only the amount of the debt, not the fact of the debt, was uncertain. Although it is possible to parse some of the Missouri cases in this fashion, we do not find the distinction consistent with the Enterprise Milling line of decisions.