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Second Circuit Review: Second Circuit Explores Statutes of Repose vs. Statutes of Limitations
February 26, 2025
Litigation of counsel Martin Flumenbaum and firm Chairman Brad Karp鈥檚 latest Second Circuit Review column, 鈥淪econd Circuit Explores Statutes of Repose vs. Statutes of Limitations,鈥� appeared in the February 26 issue of the New York Law Journal. The authors discuss a recent decision in which the Second Circuit considered whether the time bar provision in the Helms-Burton Act, which allows U.S. nationals with claims to property confiscated by the Cuban Castro regime to bring civil suits against any person who trafficked in the confiscated property, is a statute of repose or a statute of limitations. Statutes of limitations, which are designed to encourage plaintiffs to pursue diligent prosecution of known claims, can be tolled, or increased, if the plaintiff is thwarted from bringing a lawsuit by extraordinary circumstances. Statutes of repose, which protect a defendant鈥檚 right to be free from liability after a legislatively determined period of time, cannot be tolled. In a unanimous opinion, the Second Circuit held that the act鈥檚 time bar provision is a statute of repose without legislative exceptions, thus creating an absolute time bar to bring a claim, even if a plaintiff is unable to do so for reasons beyond its control.
Law clerk Alexander Harper assisted in the preparation of this column.
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