Also known as: statute of limitations · statutes of limitations · statute of limitation · SOL · limitation period
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A statutory provision that bars commencement of an action after a specified period has elapsed from the date the cause of action accrued. The bar operates as a defense that extinguishes the remedy while leaving the underlying right intact in most jurisdictions.
Serena Soto filed a complaint against Sterling Dynamics within the limitations period but later sought to add a new claim arising from the same transaction. Because the governing limitations law permitted relation back, the amendment was treated as timely filed on the date of the original pleading.
Solomon Silver sued Synergy Systems in federal court under diversity jurisdiction for a state-law claim. The federal court applied the state statute of limitations and its tolling rules because those rules are substantive for Erie purposes and determine the outcome of the litigation.
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Sasha Stone owed an antecedent debt to Sierra Solutions that had become time-barred. When Stone voluntarily acknowledged the present existence of the debt in writing, the acknowledgment created a new enforceable obligation despite the statute of limitations.
Skylar Sullivan and Sylvia Santos ended their cohabitation after a dispute over contributions. Sullivan commenced an action for breach of their cohabitants agreement two months after termination, which fell within the contractual limitations period measured from the date of breach.
Steven Silva was investigated for conduct that occurred years earlier. A new statute extending the limitations period after the original period had expired was held invalid because it retroactively increased the quantum of evidence sufficient to convict and reopened punishment for past acts.
Southland Foods sued in federal diversity court on a claim that would have been time-barred under state law. The court applied the state statute of limitations because disregarding it would have produced a materially different result from the one that would obtain in state court.
Statutes of limitations and their tolling rules are substantive for Erie purposes. A federal court sitting in diversity must apply them because ignoring state law would substantially affect the outcome of the litigation.
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A voluntary acknowledgment admitting the present existence of the antecedent indebtedness binds the promisor even if the original claim would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations.
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Relation back is permitted when the law that supplies the applicable statute of limitations itself allows the amendment to relate back to the original pleading date.
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The claim accrues on breach and may be commenced during cohabitation or after termination, subject to the applicable contractual statute of limitations.
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A statute that retroactively revives a time-barred criminal prosecution by extending the limitations period after it has expired violates the Ex Post Facto Clause.
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…solved by reference to any traditional or common-sense substance-procedure distinction: "And so the question is not whether a statute of limitations is deemed a matter of procedure' in some sense. The question is . . . does it significantly affect the result of a litigation for a federal court to disregard a law of a State that would…