896
Opinion of the Court
IV
Finally, we address whether §§ 9201 and 9202(a) of OBRA, which amended respectively the ADEA and ERISA to prohibit age-based benefit accrual rules, apply retroactively.9 Two Terms ago, we set forth the proper approach for determining the retroactive effect of a statute in Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U. S. 244 (1994). We stated that "[w]hen a case implicates a federal statute enacted after the events in suit, the court's first task is to determine whether Congress has expressly prescribed the statute's proper reach." Id., at 280. Thus, we must determine whether Congress has plainly delineated the temporal scope of the OBRA amendments to ERISA and the ADEA.
Section 9204(a)(1) of OBRA, 100 Stat. 1979, expressly provides that "[t]he amendments made by sections 9201 and 9202 shall apply only with respect to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 1988, and only to employees who have 1 hour of service in any plan year to which such amendments apply." 29 U. S. C. § 623 note. This language compels the conclusion that the amendments are prospective. For plan years that began on or after January 1, 1988, age-based accrual rules are unlawful under the amendments; further, only employees who have one hour of service in such a plan year are entitled to the protection of the amendments. But for plan years prior to the effective date, employers cannot be held liable for using age-based accrual rules. Where, as here, the temporal effect of a statute is manifest on its face, "there is no need to resort to judicial default rules," Land-9 Section 9203(a)(1) of OBRA, amending ERISA to prevent the exclusion of employees of a certain age from plan participation, applies "only with respect to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 1988, and only with respect to service performed on or after such date." OBRA § 9204(b), 100 Stat. 1980. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that Lockheed fully complied with that amendment by admitting Spink as a member of the Plan as of December 25, 1988, the first day of Lockheed's 1988 plan year.
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