Opinion ID: 342263
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Shavian Guideposts

Text: 2 Federal courts must look in the first instance to the applicable state statute of limitations in actions for back pay or similar damages under a federal statute for which Congress failed to provide limitations period. See 42 U.S.C. § 1988; O'Sullivan v. Felix,233 U.S. 318, 34 S.Ct. 596, 58 L.Ed. 980 (1914); Beard v. Stephens, 372 F.2d 685, 688 (5th Cir. 1967). 3 Whether it should be inferred from Congressional silence that Congress intended that state limitations periods be applied at all is a matter that has perhaps unfortunately troubled historians more than judges. See Note, A Limitation on Action for Deprivations of Federal Rights, 68 Colum.L.Rev. 763 (1968). Instead, the question of selecting one from among many possible state limitations provisions has been, for better or worse, the focus of judicial attention. 4 To be sure, in deciding the period governing § 1983 we have occasionally heeded the principle that our choice of a state statute of limitations must be based on which statute will best effectuate the Congressional policies underlying § 1983. Thus, in Franklin v. City of Marks, 439 F.2d 665, 669 (5th Cir. 1971), the court refused to be bound by a state statute of limitations so short (10 days) that it impinged on policies underlying § 1983. We have dealt with the abnormal case such as Franklin,, however, without articulating our reasons for applying state law in the normal case. Moreover, in the normal case we have quickly abandoned the pretence that our reason for selecting one among many state limitations provisions is that it best serves federal interests. 5 For example, one line of cases advises that the choice of a state limitations provision is a matter of determining based on federal law the essential nature of the federal claim, and then of determining under state law which limitation period would be applicable to a state claim of the same general category. See Bell v. Aerodex, Inc., 473 F.2d 869, 971 (5th Cir. 1973); Franklin v. City of Marks, supra, 439 F.2d at 669-70; McGuire v. Baker, 421 F.2d 895, 898 (5th Cir. 1970). A second line of cases advises that the choice of a limitations period is based on how a state court applying state law would categorize the action for relief. See Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 495 F.2d 398, 405 (5th Cir. 1974), rev'd in part on other grounds, 424 U.S. 747, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976); Knowles v. Carson, 419 F.2d 369 (5th Cir. 1969). Even the first line of cases tends, in practice, to rely heavily on state law in categorizing the claim presented, however, so that references to federal law even in this line tend to be of little import. Federal interests are thus generally subordinated to a mechanical application of state law. 6 Two recent cases in this circuit, Shaw v. Garrison, 545 F.2d 980 (5th Cir. 1977), and Shaw v. McCorkle, 537 F.2d 1289 (5th Cir. 1976), help provide the guideposts in this area. Shaw v. McCorkle analyzes the two lines of cases adverted to above and concludes that in determining which state statute of limitations applies to an action under § 1983, a federal court should determine first how the state court would categorize the action and then which state limitation period would apply to the action so categorized. 7 Shaw v. Garrison addressed the question whether state survivorship law or federal common law determined if a § 1983 plaintiff's death prior to trial caused his civil rights claim to abate. The court reasoned that since application of state survival law to the facts of that case would leave plaintiff without a remedy in either federal or state court, the state survivorship law was inconsistent with the broad remedial purposes embodied in the Civil Rights Acts. The court concluded that where state law proves to be an unsuitable vehicle to provide the relief envisioned by § 1983, the federal courts may look beyond the inhospitable law. It held that as a matter of federal common law the civil rights action survived in favor of plaintiff's estate. The Garrison court thus gave full effect to the principle often ignored in the statutes of limitations cases that where resort to state law is had to fill the interstices in federal provisions creating substantive rights, the touchstone must be whether a particular state statute effectuates the Congressional policies underlying the federal acts. 8 Nonetheless Shaw v. Garrison draws a critical distinction that tells us why the principle of Shaw v. McCorkle controls our treatment of the case at bar. Quoting from the lower court opinion, 391 F.Supp. 1353, the court distinguished between statutes regulating survival, which may entirely bar plaintiffs from ever filing suit, and statutes of limitations, which merely regulate the permissible time for filing suit. 2 Because the hardship worked by the former is much more severe than that occasioned by the latter, inhospitable state limitations provisions will carry greater weight than inhospitable survivorship provisions, and in the normal case recourse the state limitations law will be dispositive. If federal interests are affected, they are not so severely restricted when the state limitations provision applies that we need fear the definition of those interests in state terms for purposes of choosing the applicable statute of limitations. 9 With these guideposts before us, our next task is to decide which Alabama statute of limitations would be applied had this or a similar action been brought in state court. 10