Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-1008_1b82.pdf
Page Number: 12

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

suits against the Government—replacing “under this para-
graph” with “every civil action against the United States.”
But Congress continued to start the 6-year limitations pe-
riod when the right “accrues.”  Compare 36 Stat. 1093 (“af-
ter  the  right  accrued  for  which  the  claim  is  made”)  with
§2401(a) (“after the right of action first accrues”). 

In 1948, as now, “accrue” had a well-settled meaning: A 
“right accrues when it comes into existence,” United States 
v. Lindsay, 346 U. S. 568, 569 (1954)—i.e., “ ‘when the plain-
tiff has a complete and present cause of action,’ ” Gabelli v. 
SEC,  568  U. S.  442,  448  (2013)  (quoting  Wallace  v.  Kato, 
549 U. S. 384, 388 (2007)).  This definition has appeared “in
dictionaries from the 19th century up until today.”  Gabelli, 
568 U. S., at 448.  Legal dictionaries in the 1940s and 1950s
uniformly explained that a cause of action “ ‘accrues’ when
a suit may be maintained thereon.”  Black’s Law Dictionary
37 (4th ed. 1951) (Black’s); see also, e.g., Ballentine’s Law 
Dictionary 15–16 (2d ed. 1948) (Ballentine’s) (“[A]ccrual of 
cause of action” defined as the “coming or springing into ex-
istence of a right to sue” (boldface deleted)).  Thus, we have 
explained that a cause of action “does not become ‘complete 
and present’ for limitations purposes”—it does not accrue— 
“until the plaintiff can file suit and obtain relief.”  Bay Area 
Laundry and Dry Cleaning Pension Trust Fund v. Ferbar 
Corp. of Cal., 522 U. S. 192, 201 (1997).

Importantly,  contemporaneous  dictionaries  also  ex-
plained  that  a  cause  of  action  accrues  “on  [the]  date  that 
damage is sustained and not [the] date when causes are set 
in  motion  which  ultimately  produce  injury.”    Black’s  37. 
“[I]f  an  act  is  not  legally  injurious  until  certain  conse-
quences occur, it is not the mere doing of the act that gives 
rise to a cause of action, but the subsequent occurrence of 
damage or loss as the consequence of the act, and in such 
case no cause of action accrues until the loss or damage oc-
curs.”  Ballentine’s 16 (emphasis added).  Thus, when Con-
gress  used  the  phrase  “right  of  action  first  accrues”  in