Cite as: 522 U. S. 192 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA), 94 Stat. 1208, 29 U. S. C. §§ 1381-1461, requires employers who withdraw from underfunded multiemployer pension plans to pay a "withdrawal liability." An employer may discharge that obligation by making a series of periodic payments according to a postwithdrawal schedule set by the pension fund's trustees, or it may prepay the entire debt at any time. We resolve in this case a statute of limitations issue concerning this legislation, specifically: When does the MPPAA's six-year statute of limitations begin to run on a pension fund's action to collect unpaid withdrawal liability?
Dismissing petitioner trust fund's suit as time barred, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the statute of limitations runs from the date the employer withdraws from the plan. We reject that ruling. A limitations period ordinarily does not begin to run until the plaintiff has a "complete and present cause of action." Rawlings v. Ray, 312 U. S. 96, 98 (1941). A cause of action does not ripen under the MPPAA until the employer fails to make a payment on the schedule set by the fund. Applying the ordinarily applicable accrual rule, we hold that the statute of limitations does not begin to run on withdrawal liability until a scheduled payment is missed.
Our holding prompts a second question, one that was not reached by the Court of Appeals. Petitioner brought this suit more than six years after respondents missed their first scheduled payment, but within six years of each subsequent missed payment. Respondents contend that petitioner's failure to sue within six years of the first missed payment bars suit for all missed payments. We disagree. The MPPAA imposes on employers an installment obligation. Consistent with general principles governing installment obligations, each missed payment creates a separate cause of action with its own six-year limitations period. Accord-
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