194
Opinion of the Court
first payment. Cf. Taylor v. Freeland & Kronz, 503 U. S. 638, 645. Pp. 206-208.
(b) The MPPAA creates an installment obligation. This Court agrees with the Third Circuit that the MPPAA incorporates the limitations rule typically governing installment obligations: A new cause of action, carrying its own limitations period, arises from the date each payment is missed. That is true even though a plan has the option to accelerate and collect the entire debt if the employer defaults. See § 1399(c)(5). Normally, the existence of a permissive acceleration clause does not alter the limitations rules that apply to installment obligations. The Court finds no indication that Congress intended to depart from the norm when it enacted the MPPAA. Unless the employer prepays, the MPPAA requires it, like any other installment debtor, to make payments when due. Like the typical installment creditor, the plan has no right, absent default and acceleration, to sue to collect payments before they fall due, and it has no obligation to accelerate on default. The employer and the plan are thus in the same position as parties to an ordinary installment transaction, and there is no reason to apply a different limitations rule. Accordingly, the Fund may not recover Ferbar's first, time-barred payment, but its action to recover the subsequent installments may proceed. Pp. 208-210.
73 F. 3d 971, reversed and remanded.
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Marsha S. Berzon argued the cause for petitioner. With her on the briefs was Scott A. Kronland.
Edward C. Dumont argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. On the brief were Acting Solicitor General Dellinger, Deputy Solicitor General Kneedler, Lisa Schiavo Blatt, James J. Keightley, Jeffrey B. Cohen, Israel Goldowitz, and Karen L. Morris.
William F. Terheyden argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was James P. Baker.*
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans et al. by Gerald M. Feder, Diana L. S. Peters, Thomas C. Nyhan, and James P. Condon; and for John T. Joyce et al., Trustees of the Bricklayers and Trowel Trades International Pension Fund, by Ira R. Mitzner and Woody N. Peterson.
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