District Judge Joseph Bianco
Central General Hospital Inc. employed Malerba as its Pharmacy Director since 1974. He remained so employed after North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System (North Shore LIJ) acquired Central General, and changed its name to Plainview Hospital. Malerba retired on Feb. 28, 2010. He sued North Shore LIJ and Central General under ERISA, claiming they failed to pay him in accordance with particular benefit schedules under his Salary Continuation Plan. Malerba acknowledged that those schedules were signed before the Plan was frozen, and were based on a vacation forfeiture policy that was later renounced. Additionally, defendants later issued a new schedule of retirement benefits supplanting the schedules on which Malerba based his lawsuit. District court granted defendants summary judgment dismissing Malerba’s ERISA claims. The uncontroverted evidence showed that Malerba knew of defendants’ renunciation of these schedulesand that his ERISA cause of action accruedin 1999. The applicable six-year statute of limitations expired before he filed his federal lawsuit on Oct. 14, 2010. Thus, Malerba’s ERISA claims were time barred.
