Also known as: toll the statute · tolled the statute · tolling statute of limitations · tolling · statute tolling
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A doctrine that suspends or extends the running of a statute of limitations during periods when specified conditions exist. Those conditions include the plaintiff's minority or incapacity, the defendant's absence from the jurisdiction, or fraudulent concealment of the claim.
Timothy Tang, a citizen of State A, slipped at a resort owned by an out-of-state corporation and filed a diversity action in federal court in State B after the ordinary limitations period had run. He relied on a State B statute that tolls the period while a plaintiff is incapacitated. The federal court applied the state tolling statute because ignoring it would produce a different outcome than in state court.
Tobias Thomas discovered that paintings stolen from his family decades earlier had resurfaced after years of active concealment by the possessor. He filed a replevin action within the statutory period measured from discovery. The court tolled the limitations period during the concealment because fairness required suspending the clock while the true owner could not locate the chattels.
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Tracy Torres asserted a federal claim and related state claims in one action. After the federal claim was dismissed, she refiled the state claims in state court. The limitations period for the state claims was tolled while the federal action was pending and for thirty days after dismissal under the supplemental jurisdiction statute.
Taliah Tang was a minor when her cause of action for property damage accrued. She filed suit within the statutory period after reaching majority. The court held that the limitations period was tolled during her minority, allowing the action to proceed.
A federal court sitting in diversity must apply the forum state's statute of limitations together with its associated tolling rules. Those rules are substantive because ignoring them would produce a materially different outcome than the result in state court.
Fraudulent concealment tolls the statute during the period the possessor actively hides the chattel from the true owner. The discovery rule then measures the limitations period from the time the owner reasonably learns the location of the property.
The limitations period for any claim asserted under supplemental jurisdiction is tolled while the claim is pending and for thirty days after dismissal unless state law provides a longer period.
When a person entitled to bring an action is a minor on the date the claim accrues, the limitations period is tolled during the minority and begins to run only after the disability is removed.
…claims of all parties. Lopez, supra , 62 N.J. at 274. If a chattel is concealed from the true owner, fairness compels tolling the statute during the period of concealment. See Lopez, supra , 62 N.J. at 275 n. 2; Developments, supra , 1220 (1950). That conclusion is consistent with tolling the statute of limitations in a…