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LIMITATION, STATUTES OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 699 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LIMITATION, STATUTES OF , the name given to acts of See also:parliament by which rights of See also:action are limited in the See also:United See also:Kingdom to a fixed See also:period after the occurrence of the events giving rise to the cause of action. This is one of the devices by which See also:lapse of See also:time is employed to See also:settle disputed claims. There are mainly two modes by which this may be effected. We may say that the active enjoyment of a right—or See also:possession—for a determined period shall be a See also:good See also:title against all the See also:world. That is the method known generally as See also:PRESCRIPTION (q.v.). It looks to the length of time during which the See also:defendant in a disputed claim has been in possession or enjoyment of the See also:matter in dispute. But the principle of the statutes of limitation is to look to the length of time during which the See also:plaintiff has been out of possession. The point of time at which he might fast have brought his action having been ascertained, the lapse of the limited period after that time bars him for ever from bringing his action. In both cases the policy of the See also:law is expressed by the See also:maxim See also:Interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium. The principle of limitation was first adopted in See also:English law in connexion with real actions, i.e. actions for the recovery of real See also:property. At first a fixed date was taken, and no action could be brought of which the cause had arisen before that date. By the See also:Statute of See also:Westminster the First (3 See also:Edward I. c.

39), the beginning of the reign of See also:

Richard I. was fixed as the date of limitation for such actions. This is the well-known " period of legal memory " recognized by the See also:judges in a different class of cases to which a See also:rule of prescription was applied. Possession of rights in alieno See also:solo from time immemorial was held to be an indefeasible title, and the courts held time immemorial to begin with the first See also:year of Richard I. A period absolutely fixed became in time useless for the purposes of limitation, and the method of counting back a certain number of years from the date of the writs was adopted in the Statute 32 See also:Henry VIII. c. 2, which fixed periods of See also:thirty, fifty and sixty years for various classes of actions nalned therein. A large number of statutes since that time have established periods of limitation for different kinds of actions. Of those now in force the most important are the Limitation See also:Act 1623 for See also:personal actions in See also:general, and the Real Property Limitation Act 1833 See also:relating to actions for the recovery of See also:land. The latter statute has been repealed and virtually re-enacted by the Real Property Limitation Act 1874, which reduced the period of limitation from twenty years to twelve, for all actions brought after the 1st See also:January 1879. The See also:principal See also:section of the act of 1833 will show the modus operandi: " After the 31st See also:December 1833, no See also:person shall make an entry or See also:distress, or bring an action to recover any land or See also:rent but within twenty years next after the time at which the right to make such entry or distress or to bring such action shall have first accrued to some person through whom he claims, or shall have first accrued to the person making or bringing the same." Another section defines the times at which the right of action or entry shall be deemed to have accrued in particular cases; e.g. when the See also:estate claimed shall have been an estate or interest in reversion, such right shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which such estate or interest became an estate or interest in possession. Thus suppose lands to be let by A to B from 1830 for a period of fifty years, and that a portion of such lands is occupied by C from 1831 without any See also:colour of title from B or A—C's See also:long possession would be of no avail against an action brought by A for the recovery of the land after the determination of B's See also:lease. A would have twelve years after the determination of the lease within which to bring his action, and might thus, by an action brought in 1891, disestablish a person who' had been in quiet possession since 1831. What the law looks to is not the length of time during which C has enjoyed the property, but the length of time which A has suffered to elapse since he might first have brought his action.

It is to be observed, however, that the Real Property Limitation Act does more than See also:

bar the remedy. It extinguishes the right, differing in this respect from the other Limitation Acts, which, while barring the remedy, preserve the right, so that it may possibly become available in some other way than by action. By section 14 of the act of 1833, when any See also:acknowledgment of the title of the person entitled shall have been given to him or his See also:agent in See also:writing signed by the person in possession, or in See also:receipt of the profits or rent, then the right of the person (to whom such acknowledgment shall have been given) to make an entry or distress or bring an action shall be deemed to have first accrued at the time at which such acknowledgment, or the last of such acknowledgments, was given. By section 15, persons under the See also:disability of See also:infancy, lunacy or cbverture, or beyond seas, and their representatives, are to be allowed ten years from the termination of this disability, or See also:death (which shall have first happened), notwithstanding that the See also:ordinary period of limitation shall have expired. By the act of 1623 actions of trespass, See also:detinue, See also:trover, See also:replevin or See also:account, actions on the See also:case (except for See also:slander), actions of See also:debt arising out of a See also:simple See also:contract and actions for arrears of rent not due upon specialty shall be limited to six years from the date of the cause of action. Actions for See also:assault, menace, See also:battery, wounds and imprisonment are limited to four years, and actions for slander to two years. Persons labouring under the disabilities of infancy, lunacy or unsoundness of mind are allowed the same time after the removal of the disability. When the defendant was " beyond seas " (i.e. outside the United Kingdom and the adjacent islands) an See also:extension of time was allowed, but by the Real Property Limitation Act of 1874 such an See also:allowance is excluded as to real property, and as to other matters by the See also:Mercantile Law See also:Amendment Act 1856. An acknowledgment, whether by See also:payment on account or by See also:mere spoken words, was formerly sufficient to take the case out of the statute. The Act 9 Geo. IV. c. 14 (See also:Lord See also:Tenterden's act) requires any promise or See also:admission of liability to be in writing and signed by the party to be charged, otherwise it will not bar the statute.

Contracts under See also:

seal are governed as to limitation by the act of 1883, which provides that actions for rent upon any See also:indenture of See also:demise, or of See also:covenant, or debt or any See also:bond or other specialty, and on recognizances, must be brought within twenty years after cause of action. Actions of debt on an See also:award (the sub-See also:mission being not under seal), or for a See also:copyhold See also:fine, or for See also:money levied on a See also:writ of fieri facias, must be brought within six years. With regard to the rights of the See also:crown, the principle obtains that nullum tempus occurrit regi, so that no statute of limitation affects the crown without See also:express mention. But by the Crown Suits Act 1769, as amended by the Crown Suits Act 1861, in suits relating to land, the claims of the crown to recover are barred after the lapse of sixty years. For the See also:prosecution of criminal offences generally there is no period of limitation, except where they are punishable on See also:summary conviction. In such case the period is six months by the Summary See also:Jurisdiction Act 1848. But there are various See also:miscellaneous limitations fixed by various acts, of which the following may be noticed. Suits and indictments under penal statutes are limited to two years if the See also:forfeiture is to the crown, to one year if the forfeiture is to the See also:common informer. Penal actions by persons aggrieved are limited to two years by the act of 1833. Prosecutions under the See also:Riot Act can only be sued upon within twelve months after the offence has been committed, and offences against the Customs Acts within three years. By the Public Authorities See also:Protection Act 1893, a prosecution against any person acting in See also:execution of statutory or other public See also:duty must be commenced within six months. Prosecutions under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, as amended by the Prevention of See also:Cruelty to See also:Children Act 1904, must be commenced within six months after the See also:commission of the offence.

Trustees are expressly empowered to plead statutes of limitation by the Trustees Act 1888; indeed, a See also:

defence under the statutes of limitations must in general be specially pleaded. Limitation is regarded strictly as a law of See also:procedure. The English courts will therefore apply their own rules to all actions, although the cause of action may have arisen in a See also:country in which different rules of limitation exist. This is also a recognized principle of private See also:international law (see J. A. See also:Foote, Private International Law, 3rd ed., 1904, p. 516 seq.). United States.—The principle of the statute of limitations has passed with some modification into the statute-books of every See also:state in the See also:Union except See also:Louisiana, whose See also:laws of limitation are essentially the prescriptions of the See also:civil law See also:drawn from the Partidas, or " See also:Spanish See also:Code." As to personal actions, it is generally provided that they shall be brought within a certain specified time—usually six years or less—from the time when the cause of action accrues, and not after, while for land the " general if not universal limitation of the right to bring action or to make entry is to twenty years after the right to enter or to bring the action accrues " (See also:Bouvier's Law See also:Dictionary, See also:art. " Limitations "). The constitutional See also:provision prohibiting states from passing laws impairing the See also:obligation of contracts is not infringed by a law of limitations, unless it bars a right of action already accrued without giving a reasonable See also:term within which to bring the action. See Darby and Bosanquet, Statutes of Limitations (1899) ; See also:Hewitt, Statutes of Limitations (1893).

End of Article: LIMITATION, STATUTES OF

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