CTS Corp. v. Waldburger (573 U.S. 1)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 9, 2014 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 573 U.S. 1 · 134 S. Ct. 2175
- Decided
- June 9, 2014
- Term
- October Term 2013
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Held : The judgment is reversed. 723 F.3d 434, reversed. Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to all but Part II-D, concluding that § 9658 does not pre-empt state statutes of repose. Pp. 2182 - 2188. (a) The outcome here turns on whether § 9658 distinguishes between statutes of limitations and statutes of repose, which are both used to limit the temporal extent or duration of tort liability. There is considerable common ground in the policies underlying the two, but their specified time periods are measured differently and they seek to attain different purposes and objectives. Statutes of limitations are designed to promote justice by encouraging plaintiffs to pursue claims diligently and begin to run when a claim accrues. Statutes of repose effect a legislative judgment that a defendant should be free from liability after a legislatively determined amount of time and are measured from the date of the defendant's last culpable act or omission. The application of equitable tolling underscores their difference in purpose. Because a statute of limitations' purpose is not furthered by barring an untimely action brought by a plaintiff who was prevented by extraordinary circumstances from timely filing, equitable tolling operates to pause the running of the statute. The purpose of statutes of repose are unaffected by such circumstances, and equitable…
Excerpt of a 46,105-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.