STJSeptember 21, 2026· 4 min read

STJ: private pension entity has ten years, not three, to recover a benefit paid under an injunction later reversed

In a motion to resolve conflicting panel rulings, the STJ's Second Section standardized the court's case law: because the claim has a contractual and supplementary social-security nature, the right to recover the amounts follows the ten-year statute of limitations under the Civil Code, not the three-year period for unjust enrichment.

The Second Section of Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled on EREsp 1,951,463, a motion to resolve conflicting panel decisions, setting a ten-year statute of limitations for a closed or open private pension entity to recover amounts paid to a plan participant under an injunction later reversed. The decision was announced by the STJ itself in a note dated August 19, 2026, and it standardizes the understanding across the Court's private-law panels, which had previously ruled inconsistently on the issue.

The conflict between the panels

Part of the STJ's case law treated this type of repayment as unjust enrichment, subject to the three-year statute of limitations under the Civil Code. The prevailing thesis in the motion to resolve the conflict was different: because the undue payment stemmed from a breach of a contractual and supplementary social-security obligation, not from a standalone case of unjust enrichment, the general ten-year period under Article 205 of the Civil Code applies.

What changes in practicePrivate pension entities, both closed and open, gain a much longer window to recover amounts wrongly paid under provisional court decisions later reversed, which also extends the period during which the participant or the sponsoring company remains exposed to a repayment claim.

Why this matters to companies that offer a pension plan as a benefit

Companies that sponsor a closed supplementary pension plan (EFPC) as part of their benefits package should reassess the risk horizon for contingencies tied to injunctions granting supplementary pension benefits. An amount paid to an employee or former employee under an injunction today can now be the subject of a repayment claim by the entity for up to ten years afterward, not just three, including in cases where the sponsoring company holds some form of contractual co-responsibility for the plan.

💡 How technology helps

Mapping long-term contingencies tied to supplementary pension benefits is part of our Payroll Diagnostics & Review service, which cross-references benefit policies against the history of provisional court decisions granted to employees. For a first, free read on your risk, use the Nexus Free Risk Check.

Does your company sponsor a supplementary pension plan, and has it already mapped how many participants had a benefit granted by injunction over the past ten years?