Hinton v. Pacific Enterprises, No. 92-55493

• Citation: 5 F.3d 391
• Decision Date: 17 September 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-55493
• Parties: Heather C. HINTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PACIFIC ENTERPRISES, formerly known as Pacific Lighting Corporation, as Employer, Plan Administrator, Plan Sponsor and Plan Fiduciary, Pacific Lighting Corporation Disability Benefit Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Medical Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Dental Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Pension Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Life Insurance Plan, and Kathe R. Moore, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 391

5 F.3d 391

26 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1406

Heather C. HINTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. PACIFIC ENTERPRISES, formerly known as Pacific Lighting

Corporation, as Employer, Plan Administrator, Plan Sponsor

and Plan Fiduciary, Pacific Lighting Corporation Disability

Benefit Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Medical Plan,

Pacific Lighting Corporation Dental Plan, Pacific Lighting

Corporation Pension Plan, Pacific Lighting Corporation Life

Insurance Plan, and Kathe R. Moore, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 92-55493.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Aug. 4, 1993.

Decided Sept. 17, 1993.

Ronald Dean, Pacific Palisades, CA, and Stephanie Nordlinger, Los Angeles, CA, for plaintiff-appellant.

Larry I. Stein and John R. Ellis, Los Angeles, CA, for defendants-appellees Pacific Enterprises, Pacific Lighting Corp. Disability Benefit Plan, Pacific Lighting Corp. Medical Plan, Pacific Lighting Corp. Dental Plan, Pacific Lighting Corp. Pension Plan, and Pacific Lighting Corp. Life Ins. Plan.

Kathe R. Moore, in pro. per.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Before: BROWNING, FARRIS and KELLY ^*, Circuit Judges.

PAUL KELLY, Jr., Circuit Judge:

Background

Plaintiff-appellant Hinton was a paralegal employed by defendant-appellee Pacific Enterprises ("Pacific"). On January 6, 1988, Hinton became disabled and on January 15, 1988, she was informed by her supervisor that she was being fired. Ten days later, she executed a resignation agreement outlining the terms of her departure from Pacific. Below her signature, in her own handwriting, Ms. Hinton added:

By signing this agreement, I understand that I do not give up my rights to seek reimbursement for disability under Worker's Compensation, the Company's disability insurance policy, and the Company's self-insurance, if any, for disability. I also understand that I do not give up my rights to unemployment insurance after my disability ceases.

Aplt.App., ex. A. Hinton applied for disability benefits and they were denied because Hinton had been "terminated," a condition which specifically eliminated eligibility for benefits under the several benefits plans for Pacific employees. On February 22, 1988, Hinton filed a worker's compensation claim against her employer for a shoulder injury. On April 19, 1988, Hinton filed another worker's compensation claim for a stress injury including chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome. In September 1988, Hinton filed a petition to obtain benefits pursuant to California Labor Code Sec. 132a.

On May 2, 1991, Ms. Hinton filed this action against Pacific and certain employees of Pacific, seeking declaratory relief and damages relating to her termination. Hinton also named her former attorney, Moore, as a defendant, alleging legal malpractice. In September 1991, Hinton amended her complaint to include the Pacific employee benefit plans ("the Plans") as Defendants.

The amended complaint contained three claims. First, Hinton sought declaratory relief against the Plans, arguing that she was still eligible for disability coverage. The gist of her argument was that although the disability plan stated that "[n]o employee shall be eligible to receive Disability Benefits following termination of employment," she was not "terminated" for the purposes of this provision. She reasoned that it would be improper to allow "termination" to encompass situations wherein the employer eliminated the employee solely to avoid ERISA benefits. And, of course, she had a claim pending against Pacific, her former employer, to that effect. The claim against Pacific was reworked as the second claim in the amended complaint and sought damages only for a violation of Sec. 510 of ERISA. ¹ The third claim in the amended complaint was against attorney Moore and substantially similar to the claim made against her in the first complaint.

On October 7, 1991, Pacific filed a motion to dismiss the first claim for failure to state a claim. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Pacific argued that Hinton's claims were barred by the statute of limitations. After a hearing, the district court dismissed the ERISA Sec. 510 claim with prejudice, finding that the two-year statute of limitations for wrongful termination based on the breach of an oral contract applied.

The Plans filed a motion to dismiss, which was also granted by the district court. The court reasoned that the theory supporting the claim against the Plans was dependent upon the claim against Pacific. On its own motion, the court ordered the claim against attorney Moore, the only claim remaining, remanded to Los Angeles Superior Court.

Hinton responded with a motion for reconsideration and, for the first time, argued that the statute of limitations was subject to tolling or, alternatively, that Pacific should be estopped from asserting a limitations defense. The court refused to reconsider, citing Local Rule 7.16. ²

Hinton appeals the dismissals of her claims. We affirm.

Discussion

I. Statute of Limitations

The first dismissal granted by the district court was based upon a finding that Hinton had failed to file her claims against Pacific within the statute of limitations. The district court cited and relied upon Felton v. Unisource Corp., 940 F.2d 503 (9th Cir.1991), which held that laws pertaining to wrongful terminations are most analogous to Sec. 510 claims under ERISA and should therefore lend their statute of limitations to such claims.

As the court in Felton explained, "[b]ecause the civil enforcement section of ERISA, Sec. 502, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 1132, does not provide its own statute of limitations, courts must determine the applicable limitation period." Id. at 510 (footnote omitted). The court then reviewed the variety of results reached by other circuits considering this question, concluding "[w]e find persuasive the reasoning of those courts which have found that a claim brought under Sec. 510 is essentially an assertion that the employee was discriminated against based on either his application for insurance benefits or his pension eligibility." Id. at 512.

Keeping in mind the federal policies behind ERISA, we hold that the most analogous state law claim would be wrongful termination against public policy or retaliatory discharge. In Sec. 510 actions, the employer has fired or suspended the employee either to evade the public policies underlying ERISA or in retaliation for the employee's exercise of his right to insurance or retirement benefits. In addition, the remedies sought by wrongful termination plaintiffs, i.e., back pay, benefits due or reinstatement, are identical to those potentially available under Sec. 502 of ERISA.

Id. (citations omitted).

The analogous California statute, addressing the tort of wrongful termination, prescribes a one-year statute of limitations. Cal.Civ.Proc.Code Sec. 340 p 3. However, California allows a wrongful termination claim to be pleaded in contract as well. Foley v. Interactive Data Corp., 47 Cal.3d 654, 254 Cal.Rptr. 211, 765 P.2d 373 (1988). The employment contract between Hinton and Pacific was oral; the statute of limitations pertaining to oral contracts is two years, Cal.Civ.Proc.Code Sec. 339, and as the district court noted, Hinton failed to file her action against her employer within that time.

Hinton argues that the four-year statute of limitations for a written contract should apply because the benefits packages were in writing. However, our resort to state law is only to determine an analogy to the basic claim of wrongful termination actionable under Sec. 510, not to delineate specific benefits pursuant to contract that may be reinstated if a termination was indeed wrongful. The very essence of Hinton's claim is that she was wrongfully terminated (and thus cut off from benefits), not that the written provisions of the benefits plan were breached by Pacific. Section 510 clearly punishes the wrongful discharge itself; any effect that employment status may have on benefits is one step removed from Sec. 510.

Hinton also argues that because Sec. 510 incorporates enforcement under Sec. 502, the same statute of limitations used in Sec. 502 should be adopted. While the remedies are borrowed from Sec. 502, we are not persuaded that Congress has expressed an intent to adopt all other features of that section. The two sections remedy different wrongs; one section corrects any improper action taken with respect to the benefits plan itself and the other punishes an improper action taken with respect to the individual's employment status.

II. Hinton's Motion for Reconsideration

Hinton argues that her motion for reconsideration, which discusses possible tolling of the statute of limitations for the first time, should have been granted. In her motion, Hinton noted that she had applied for worker's compensation benefits in February 1988 and cited several cases which stand for the proposition that when a plaintiff files for worker's compensation benefits, the statute of limitations in any civil case brought in the future against the same defendant is tolled until after the worker's compensation case is finally decided. The district court, however, found that "plaintiff has failed to make a sufficient showing that notwithstanding the exercise of reasonable diligence, plaintiff could not have discovered the facts and/or law upon which this motion for reconsideration is based," E.R. Tab 26, as required by Local Rule 7.16, quoted supra note 2. A determination of compliance with local rules is reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard. See Yagman v. Republic Ins., 987 F.2d 622, 630 (9th Cir.1993).

Hinton argues that Felton represented "new law" that she could not have anticipated and appropriately countered with allegations which could have tolled the statute of limitations. Felton was decided on July 31, 1991--before the amended complaint was filed and, thus, before Hinton had made any claims against Pacific...