Court Opinion

ID: 9429701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:41.070179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:19:11.255620
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
with whom The Chief Justice and Justice O’Connor join, concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the judgment of the Court, agreeing with the Court of Appeals that in these circumstances the statute of limitations imposed on administrative complaints filed under Md. Ann. Code, Art. 49B, § 9(a) (1979), is not the most appropriate statute of limitations to be applied in this case. I write separately because I cannot agree with the standard by which the Court purports to reach this result. In my view, the search for the most appropriate statute of limitations should begin with determining the intent of the state legislature in enacting a particular statute of limitations.
The task before us is straightforward: we are to examine Maryland law to determine what is the most appropriate statute of limitations to apply to respondents’ lawsuit. The Court is presented with this task because Congress has seen fit not to prescribe a specific statute of limitations to govern actions under most of the federal civil rights statutes, instead directing courts to apply state law if “not inconsistent” with *57federal law. See 42 U. S. C. § 1988; cf. § 1986 (setting a 1-year statute of limitations). The Court addresses the question before us by assuming that certain functional differences may exist between claims asserted under the federal civil rights laws and claims asserted under state law. Under this approach, the appropriateness of a particular state statute of limitations for purposes of borrowing in a federal civil rights action depends on whether the state law reflects the “practicalities” that attend litigation under the federal civil rights statutes and embodies policies “analogous” to those of the federal civil rights statutes. But the test prescribed by the Court is consistent neither in principle nor in practice with our prior decisions.
I part ways with the majority, first of all, with its view of the “practicalities” of litigation that so trouble the Court. These seeming difficulties are hardly unique to respondents’ claims or any other garden-variety federal civil rights claim. The Court apparently believes that a person asserting a federal civil rights claim must undertake an involved investigation preparatory to filing suit. See ante, at 50-51. The basis for this assumption is not clear. The Federal Rules require nothing more than a plain statement of the grounds for relief, Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(a), while the Rules of discovery that enable a party to develop his case fully prior to trial come into play after suit has been filed. To be sure, at least a modicum of investigation should be necessary before initiating suit: the amount will depend not on the fact that a federal civil rights claim is being asserted, but on the particular facts that give rise to a claim. But there is nothing inherent in a claim asserted under § 1981, § 1983, or § 1985, in light of modern pleading rules, that makes such a claim invariably more difficult to investigate than a claim asserted under state law. Cf. Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U. S. 454, 464 (1975).
It is true that a longer statute of limitations will give a person more time to reflect and to recognize that he may have some means of relief. But that common-sense truism hardly *58qualifies as a “practicality” that should ordinarily affect a court’s analysis whether to borrow a particular state statute of limitations. Were it otherwise, a federal court should always prefer a longer statute of limitations over an alternative, but shorter, period, a type of approach we have rejected before. Cf. Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U. S. 584 (1978). While the “practicalities” of preparing a case may have some relevance to the question whether a state statute of limitations should be applied, see ante, at 53, the Court’s focus on the “practicalities” of filing a lawsuit alleging a federal civil rights claim do not illuminate any convincing reason why the limitations period contained in Md. Ann. Code, Art. 49B, § 9(a) (1979), is inconsistent with federal law.
The second part of the Court’s proposed test for determining whether to apply a particular state statute of limitations is whether the state policies underlying the statute of limitations reflect policies “analogous” — whatever that may mean — to federal civil rights claims. From the application of that principle to this case, the Court seems to believe that the basic purpose underlying the federal civil rights statutes, vindication of a violation of a federal right, necessitates a statute of limitations that is both general in the remedies it encompasses and nondiscriminatory between the federal plaintiffs bringing suit. The logical result of this approach is that a federal court should always prefer a general statute of limitations to any specific state statute of limitations directed at a particular type of claim or involving a particular party as plaintiff or defendant. Thus, a general catchall statute of limitations, or one covering all forms of invasions of personal rights, would be the appropriate statute of limitations to govern nearly all federal civil rights actions.
This approach, of course, means that any federal civil rights action grounded on a contract claim could avoid the statute of limitations applying to contract claims, or that a claim against a state-employed doctor, though alleging only *59malpractice, might benefit from a longer statute of limitations than ordinarily applying to medical malpractice actions. This desire for uniform treatment of federal civil rights claims is at odds with the fact that Congress has seen no need to establish a uniform approach in federal civil rights actions. Board of Regents v. Tomanio, 446 U. S. 478, 489 (1980); Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U. S., at 593, n. 11. More significantly, it fails to recognize that a state statute of limitations can still be consistent with federal law notwithstanding the fact that the particular statute of limitations applies only to a particular class of claims cognizable under a federal civil rights statute, or involves a particular class of parties.
On several occasions the Court has addressed the issue of whether a limitations period is inconsistent with the federal policy embodied in the civil rights statutes. In Robertson, for example, we indicated that the. dual policies of preventing the abuse of state power and compensating victims for violations of federal rights were the yardsticks by which any state limitations period must be measured. Id., at 591. We developed the concept of inconsistency further in Tomanio, supra, where we observed that to gauge consistency, “the state and federal policies which the respective legislatures sought to foster must be identified and compared.” Id., at 487. We went on to affirm in that case that statutes of limitations have “long been respected as fundamental to a well-ordered judicial system,” ibid., and to state that “in general, state policies of repose cannot be said to be disfavored in federal law,” id., at 488. Finally, in Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, supra, the Court addressed the question of inconsistency to determine whether an otherwise applicable state 1-year statute of limitations should be tolled pending federal administrative proceedings. We rejected the petitioner’s contention in Johnson that state rules for tolling were inconsistent with federal law, since they forced him to bring a § 1981 claim during the pendency of federal agency *60proceedings. We noted that there was not “anything peculiar to a federal civil rights action that would justify special reluctance in applying state law.” Id., at 464.
The Court, of course, purports to measure the statute of limitations in this case against the relevant federal policies forming the basis of respondents’ cause of action. See ante, at 53-55. Under the Court’s reasoning, however, the policies of repose and prevention of stale claims that generally underlie limitations statutes will always be of marginal relevance to compensating victims of violations of federal rights. Thus, the approach adopted by the Court utterly disregards our earlier observation, also in Robertson, that “[a] state statute cannot be considered ‘inconsistent’ with federal law merely because the statute causes the plaintiff to lose the litigation.” 436 U. S., at 593.
Congress, moreover, has instructed federal courts to refer to state statutes when federal law does not provide a rule of decision for actions brought under one of the civil rights statutes. See 42 U. S. C. § 1988. This admonition is more than a mere “technical obstacle to be circumvented if possible.” Tomanio, supra, at 484. Only if state law is “inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States,” 42 U. S. C. § 1988, are federal courts free to disregard otherwise applicable state statutes of limitations. As our decision in Tomanio made clear, the intent of the state legislature in enacting a particular limitations statute is extremely relevant to determining whether the applicable state law is inconsistent with federal law. The conclusion that I reach is that if the legislature has indicated that a particular statute of limitations should apply to a claim, that statute is prima facie the most appropriate statute of limitations to apply to a federal civil rights action.
Congress, however, has prescribed limits to this reliance on legislative intent in 42 U. S. C. § 1988. Plainly, if the state statute of limitations discriminates against federal claims, such that a federal claim would be time-barred, while *61an equivalent state claim would not, then the state law is inconsistent with federal law. Alternatively, if the state statute of limitations fails to afford a reasonable time to the federal claimant, then state legislative intent can also be disregarded. Exactly what constitutes a reasonable time, however, is not to be determined a 'priori. The willingness of Congress to impose a 1-year limitations period in 42 U. S. C. § 1986 demonstrates that at least a 1-year period is reasonable. In another context we have been willing to impose a 6-month limitations period on a federal claimant, in circumstances where the “practicalities” of litigation seem materially the same as in this case. DelCostello v. Teamsters, 462 U. S. 151 (1983). Even shorter periods of limitation might be permissible, if the state interest in repose is strong and the nature of the claim is such that the magnitude of the harm is readily ascertainable in a short period.
I agree with the court below that it is unlikely that the Maryland Legislature intended for the 6-month statute of limitations embodied in Md. Ann. Code, Art. 49B, §9(a) (1979), to apply to the federal civil rights claims asserted in this case. Unlike the Court, however, I do not believe that the “practicalities” of litigation necessarily mean that a 6-month limitations period is an unreasonable time in which to bring a federal cause of action. Perhaps if the legislative intent had been clear, borrowing the administrative statute of limitations would have been consistent with the underlying federal policies embodied in these civil rights statutes. On the other hand, the differences between the two types of claims, one judicial, the other administrative, reinforce the conclusion that the Maryland Legislature did not intend that Art. 49B, § 9(a), apply to federal civil rights claims. Thus, to this limited extent, the “practicalities” of litigation bear on the question whether the state legislature intended for the statute to apply to this federal claim.
In sum, I believe that the correct inquiry is to examine the intent of the state legislature in enacting a statute of limita*62tions. If that inquiry indicates that the legislature would have intended that statute to apply to the particular claim before the court, then the court must apply that limitations period, unless the statute discriminates against the federal claim or does not afford a reasonable amount of time in which to bring the claim. Since it appears that the legislature did not intend that Md. Ann. Code, Art. 49B, apply to respondents’ claims, I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.