Cite as: 526 U. S. 358 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This case, brought under § 502(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 88 Stat. 891, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 1132(a), concerns ERISA's preemption and saving clauses. The preemption clause, § 514(a), 29 U. S. C. § 1144(a), broadly states that ERISA provisions "shall supersede . . . State laws" to the extent that those laws "relate to any employee benefit plan." The saving clause, § 514(b)(2)(A), 29 U. S. C. § 1144(b)(2)(A), phrased with similar breadth, exempts from preemption "any law of any State which regulates insurance." The key words "regulates insurance" in § 514(b)(2)(A), and "relate to" in § 514(a), once again require interpretation, for their meaning is not "plain"; sensible construction of ERISA, our decisions indicate, requires that we measure these words in context. See Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 47 (1987) (noting that repeated calls for interpretation are not surprising in view of "the wide variety of state statutory and decisional law arguably affected" by ERISA's preemption and saving clauses).
The context here is a suit to recover disability benefits under an ERISA-governed insurance policy issued by defendant-petitioner UNUM Life Insurance Company of America (UNUM). Plaintiff-respondent John E. Ward submitted his proof of claim to UNUM outside the time limit set in the policy, and UNUM therefore denied Ward's claim.
Ruling in Ward's favor, and reversing the District Court's summary judgment for UNUM, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit relied on decisional law in California, the State in which Ward worked and in which his employer operated. The Ninth Circuit's judgment rested on two grounds. That
ridge; and for the National Employment Lawyers Association by Daniel M. Feinberg and Paula A. Brantner. Mary Ellen Signorille and Melvin Radowitz filed a brief for the American Association of Retired Persons as amicus curiae.
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