Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 94

524US1

Unit: $U73

[09-06-00 17:32:49] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 524 U. S. 38 (1998)

49

Stevens, J., concurring

nature of the QTA’s limitations time period, extension of the
statutory period by additional equitable tolling would be un-
warranted. This is particularly true given that the QTA
deals with ownership of land.
It is of special importance
that landowners know with certainty what their rights are,
and the period during which those rights may be subject to
challenge. Equitable tolling of the already generous statute
of limitations incorporated in the QTA would throw a cloud
of uncertainty over these rights, and we hold that it is incom-
patible with the Act.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore re-
versed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Souter joins,

concurring.

As the Court correctly observes, the text of the Quiet Title
Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2409a(g), expressly allows equitable tolling
by providing that the statute of limitations will not begin to
run until the plaintiff or the plaintiff ’s predecessor “knew or
should have known of the claim of the United States.” Be-
cause the Beggerlys were aware of the Government’s claim
more than 12 years before they ﬁled this action, the Court
correctly holds that there is no basis for any additional equi-
table tolling in this case. We are not confronted with the
question whether a doctrine such as fraudulent concealment
or equitable estoppel might apply if the Government were
guilty of outrageous misconduct that prevented the plaintiff,
though fully aware of the Government’s claim of title, from
knowing of her own claim. Those doctrines are distinct
from equitable tolling, see 4 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal
Practice and Procedure § 1056 (Supp. 1998); cf. United States
v. Locke, 471 U. S. 84, 94, n. 10 (1985) (referring separately
to estoppel and equitable tolling), and conceivably might