Posts
RE "borrowing" state Statute of Limiations under 42 USC 1988
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Board of Regents of Univ. of State of N. Y. v. Tomanio, 446 U.S. 478 (1980)
"Under 42 U.S.C. 1988, federal courts are instructed to refer to state statutes when federal law provides no rule of decision for actions brought under 1983, and 1988 authorizes federal courts to disregard an otherwise applicable state rule of law only if the state law is "inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States."
Since Congress did not establish a statute of limitations or a body of tolling rules applicable to federal-court actions under 1983, the analogous state statute of limitations and the coordinate tolling rules are binding rules of law in most cases. This "borrowing" of the state statute of limitations includes rules of tolling unless they are "inconsistent" with federal law."
