Opinion ID: 1456313
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The VBIA's Statutory Language

Text: We turn first to the language of the disputed legislation. The VBIA struck the provision in USERRA that prohibited applying state statutes of limitation, formerly, as amended, at 38 U.S.C. § 4323(i), and replaced it with the following: If any person seeks to file a complaint or claim with the Secretary [of Labor], the Merit Systems Protection Board, or a Federal or State court under this chapter alleging a violation of this chapter, there shall be no limit on the period for filing the complaint or claim. Pub.L. No. 110-389, § 311(f)(1), 122 Stat. 4145, 4164 (2008) (codified at 38 U.S.C. § 4327(b)). As we detailed above, our first stop in interpreting legislation is the language that Congress employed, Engine Mfrs. Ass'n, 541 U.S. at 252, 124 S.Ct. 1756, and it is well established that a court should not apply a newly enacted statutory provision retroactively unless Congress has clearly mandated such an extension, see Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States ex rel. Schumer, 520 U.S. 939, 946-47, 117 S.Ct. 1871, 138 L.Ed.2d 135 (1997); Killingsworth v. HSBC Bank Nev., N.A., 507 F.3d 614, 619-20 (7th Cir.2007) (discussing the Supreme Court's decision in Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994), and the general presumption of antiretroactivity in cases where a statute's temporal reach is ambiguous); Bowlds, 411 F.3d at 811; Diaz v. Shallbetter, 984 F.2d 850, 852 (7th Cir.1993) (There is [a] venerable principle that changes in statutes do not apply to pending cases unless the legislature so commands, explicitly.). The VBIA says nothing about whether § 4327(b) applies retroactively. In fact, the only hint in the text suggests that it applies prospectively: If any person seeks to file a complaint or claim .... Sec. 311(f)(1), § 4327(b) (emphasis added). Congress was aware that for § 4327(b) to have retroactive effect, it needed to say so expressly, and the absence of any such express language in the text indicates that Congress chose not to do so. More importantly, however, is that even if we could interpret § 4327(b) to apply to some USERRA claims filed before October 10, 2008, this would not save Middleton's thirteen-year-old cause of action, which was already time-barred when § 4327(b) took effect. A plaintiff may overcome the general presumption against retroactivity, but doing so is especially tough when the amended law extends the time within which a plaintiff must file a lawsuit. Diaz, 984 F.2d at 852. We typically presume that a newly extended statute of limitations does not revive a previously barred claim. See Vill. of Bellwood v. Dwivedi, 895 F.2d 1521, 1527 (7th Cir.1990) (In the absence of evidence of a contrary legislative purpose, subsequent extensions of a statutory limitation period will not revive a claim previously barred. (quotations omitted)); cf. Hughes Aircraft Co., 520 U.S. at 950, 117 S.Ct. 1871 (noting that the extension of a statute of limitations after the preexisting period of limitations has expired impermissibly revives a moribund cause of action). Laws enlarging the statute of limitations traditionally are applied prospectively; sometimes courts even hint that legislatures lack the power to revive claims that have become barred by lapse of time. Diaz, 984 F.2d at 852-53 (citing Bradley v. Sch. Bd. of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 720, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974)); see also Berman v. Blount Parrish & Co., 525 F.3d 1057, 1058-59 (11th Cir.2008) (refusing to apply an extended limitations period for certain securities fraud cases, added by § 804(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, to claims previously time-barred, and collecting cases, including our own in Foss v. Bear, Stearns & Co., 394 F.3d 540, 542 (7th Cir.2005)). Middleton asks us to apply § 4327(b) to revive a time-barred claim, but he has presented nothing to overcome our presumption against doing so. Congress said nothing about retroactivity, and under the general rule we have just stated, we cannot apply § 4327(b) to his thirteen-year-old USERRA claim. Because Middleton alleged conduct occurring more than four years before Congress enacted the VBIA, we need not decide whether § 4327(b) applies retroactively to a claim that accrued within the four years preceding the VBIA.