Also known as: efflux of time · lapse of time · expiration of term
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An expiration of a legal period, power, or obligation that occurs solely because a specified duration has passed without any intervening act or event.
Prime Wireless sent West Broadband a written proposal for fiber service on January 15 with no stated deadline. West Broadband signed and returned the document on May 15 after completing an office move. The four-month gap caused the power of acceptance to end, so no contract formed when Prime refused the late response.
A factory released pollutants that posed a risk of groundwater harm. After several years passed without cleanup, a third party’s independent dumping became the dominant source of contamination. The extended interval caused the original actor’s responsibility for the final harm to terminate under apportionment rules.
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A contractor left an excavation site unsecured after completing work. Two years later a neighboring property owner failed to install barriers, allowing a pedestrian to fall. Because of the passage of time the duty to warn or protect shifted away from the contractor, making the neighbor’s inaction a superseding cause.
Equinox Energy leased warehouse space from Everest Holdings for a five-year term ending December 31. Neither party gave notice or took any action to extend the lease. On January 1 the tenancy terminated automatically, returning possession to the landlord without any affirmative termination notice.
Elise Everly suffered an injury on March 1, 2010. She filed suit on March 15, 2013. The three-year limitations period had run solely by the passage of time, extinguishing the cause of action regardless of any later discovery or communication between the parties.
Echo Systems appointed Ewan Eckhart as its exclusive sales agent under a one-year agreement that contained no renewal clause. After twelve months elapsed without any extension or new agreement, the agency terminated automatically, freeing both parties from further obligations under the original arrangement.
An offeree’s power of acceptance ends when a reasonable time passes without acceptance, even if the offer contains no explicit deadline. Courts measure reasonableness by market conditions, subject matter, and the parties’ communications. Once that period expires, the offer lapses and cannot be revived by a late acceptance.
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Yes. When substantial time passes after negligent conduct, the original actor’s duty to prevent harm may shift to a third person. The later failure of that third person then becomes a superseding cause that cuts off the original actor’s liability.
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Effluxion of time terminates the power of acceptance automatically once a reasonable period expires, without any action by the offeror. Revocation requires an affirmative communication from the offeror before acceptance occurs. Both end the power, but only revocation depends on the offeror’s conduct.
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No. A tort claim is barred by lapse of time only when a statute of limitations applies. The mere passage of time alone does not extinguish the claim unless the statute has run.
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…v. Tyson , is, as Mr. Justice Holmes said, "an unconstitutional assumption of powers by courts of the United States which no lapse of time or respectable array of opinion should make us hesitate to correct." In disapproving that doctrine we do not hold unconstitutional § 34 of the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 or any other Act…