Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-328_pm02.pdf
Page Number: 6

4 

ROTKISKE v. KLEMM 

Opinion of the Court 

FDCPA’s one-year limitations period runs from the “date on 
which the violation occurs,” not the date a potential plaintiff 
discovers  or  should  have  discovered  the  violation.    Id.,  at 
425–426.  The court expressly rejected the Ninth Circuit’s
approach, stating that there is no default presumption that 
all federal limitations periods run from the date of discov-
ery.  Id., at 427.  Rotkiske failed to raise the application of 
equitable doctrines on appeal, so the court did not address
that issue.  Id., at 428–429. 

Given the conflict between the Courts of Appeals, see id., 

at 427, we granted certiorari.  586 U. S. ___ (2019). 

II 
The question before us is whether the “discovery rule” ap-
plies to the FDCPA’s limitations period.  The phrase “dis-
covery rule,” however, has no generally accepted meaning. 
Rotkiske’s arguments invoking the discovery rule implicate 
two distinct concepts—the application of a general discov-
ery rule as a principle of statutory interpretation and the 
application of a fraud-specific discovery rule as an equitable 
doctrine.  We address each in turn. 

A 
When interpreting limitations provisions, as always, “we
begin by analyzing the statutory language.”  Hardt v. Reli-
ance Standard Life Ins. Co., 560 U. S. 242, 251 (2010).  If 
the words of a statute are unambiguous, this first step of
the interpretive inquiry is our last.  Connecticut Nat. Bank 
v.  Germain,  503  U. S.  249,  254  (1992).    If  “there  are  two 
plausible constructions of a statute of limitations,” we gen-
erally “adopt the construction that starts the time limit run-
ning  when  the  cause  of  action  . . .  accrues”  because  “Con-
‘standard  rule  that  the 
gress  legislates  against  the 
limitations period commences when the plaintiff has a com-
plete and present cause of action.’ ”  Graham County Soil & 
Water Conservation Dist. v. United States ex rel. Wilson, 545