Within the United States, a statute of limitations is typically deemed to be a procedural law, meaning that a state will ordinarily apply its own statute of limitations to any case that is filed within its courts.
A borrowing statute, is a
statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...
under which a U.S. state may "borrow" a shorter
statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
for a cause of action arising in another jurisdiction. The purpose of borrowing statutes is to prevent plaintiffs from engaging in
forum shopping
Forum shopping is a colloquial term for the practice of litigants having their legal case heard in the court thought most likely to provide a favorable judgment. Some jurisdictions have, for example, become known as "plaintiff-friendly" and so h ...
in order to find the longest available statute of limitations.
A borrowing statute is applied where a plaintiff sues in a state different from the state where the act that is the basis of the lawsuit occurred. For example, if a person is injured in a car accident in state A, that person may sue the at-fault driver in state B (presuming state B has jurisdiction, usually because it is the driver's home state). If the state in which the lawsuit is filed has a borrowing statute, that state will usually apply the other state's statute of limitations, as long as it is a ''shorter'' statute of limitations than that of the borrowing state.
In determining which state is the one in which the cause of action arose, states will apply various
choice of law
Choice of law is a procedural stage in the litigation of a case involving the conflict of laws when it is necessary to reconcile the differences between the laws of different legal jurisdictions, such as sovereign states, federated states (as in t ...
principles, which may be very complicated.
States that do not have borrowing statutes may apply their own statutes of limitation to most or all lawsuits filed in their state courts, although at times they may apply an out-of-state limitations period based upon a choice of law analysis.
In some states, the borrowing statute will only be applied if the plaintiff was not a resident of that state at the time the cause of action accrued; in others, it will only apply if the defendant was not a resident. Some states limit the use of borrowing statutes to specific types of cases, such as breach of contract actions.
[See, e.g., . In Virginia, if the contract was breached in another state where it was supposed to have been performed, or validity of the contract is contested in another state where the contract was formed, then a court will apply the statute of limitations of the other state as long as it is shorter than their local statutes of limitations.]
References
Law of the United States
Conflict of laws of the United States
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