Opinion

Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. Gilbertson

  • 501 U.S. 350
  • 111 S. Ct. 2773
  • 115 L. Ed. 2d 321
  • 1991 U.S. LEXIS 3629
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Filed
Sep 13, 1991
Status
Published
Author
Scalia
On the bench
Kennedy, Blackmun, Scalia, Stevens, O'Connor
Cited by
1,129 cases
Authority
More cited than 24.3%

Reported superseded on other grounds by Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. 633 (2010) — not on the Supreme Court's list

explaining that the Solicitor General' — who appeared on behalf of the SEC— “urge[d] the application of the 5-year statute of repose specified in [section] 20A [to private actions under Rule 10b-5] .... The 5-year period, it is said, accords with 'Congress's most recent views on the accommodation of competing interests, provides the closest federal analogy, and promises to yield the best practical and policy results in Rule 10b-5 litigation.' ”

How later courts described this case

  • explaining that the Solicitor General' — who appeared on behalf of the SEC— “urge[d] the application of the 5-year statute of repose specified in [section] 20A [to private actions under Rule 10b-5] .... The 5-year period, it is said, accords with 'Congress's most recent views on the accommodation of competing interests, provides the closest federal analogy, and promises to yield the best practical and policy results in Rule 10b-5 litigation.' ”
  • holding that "[l]itigation instituted pursuant to § 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 therefore must be commenced within one year after the discovery of the facts constituting the violation and within three years after such violation" and that 15 U.S.C. § 78i(e) provides the exact limitations rule
  • holding that, prior to the enactment of 28 U.S.C. § 1658, claims under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act must be commenced within one year after the discovery of the facts constituting the violation or within three years after the cause of action accrued

Written by the judges who cited it.

Later courts went against this

  • Reported superseded on other grounds by Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. 633 (2010) — not on the Supreme Court's list

    501 U.S. 350, 356 (1991), superseded on other grounds, as stated in Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. 633
    Supreme Court of the United StatesApr 27, 20102 citing opinionsother groundsunconfirmed confidenceRead it
  • Reported superseded by statute, as recognized in Murphy v. FDIC — not on the Supreme Court's list

    501 U.S. 350, 363, 111 S.Ct. 2773, 115 L.Ed.2d 321 (1991) (“The 3-year limit is a period of repose inconsistent with tolling.”), superseded by statute as stated in Murphy v. FDIC, 208 F.3d 959, 965 n. 4 (11th Cir.2000);
    Court of Appeals for the Eleventh CircuitApr 7, 2000by statuteunconfirmed confidenceRead it

Distinguished

  • Distinguished by Bensinger v. Denbury Resources Inc., 31 F. Supp. 3d 503 (2014)

    Id. The Court recently reaffirmed that equitable tolling is inapplicable to statutes of repose in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, stating that
    District Court, E.D. New YorkJul 14, 2014Read it
  • Distinguished by Prostar v. Massachi, 239 F.3d 669 (2001)

    501 U.S. 350, 111 S.Ct. 2773, 115 L.Ed.2d 321 (1991), is distinguishable.
    Court of Appeals for the Fifth CircuitJan 17, 2001Read it

The opinion

Justice Scalia,

concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.

Although I accept the stare have made with respect to the statutes of limitations applicable to particular federal causes of action, I continue to disagree with the methodology the Court has very recently adopted for purposes of making those decisions. In my view, absent a congressionally created limitations period state periods govern, or, if they are inconsistent with the purposes of the federal Act, no limitations period exists. See Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Associates, Inc., 483 U. S. *365 143, 157-170 (1987) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment), see also Reed v. United Transportation Union, 488 U. S. 319, 334 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment).

The present case presents a distinctive difficulty because it involves one of those so-called “implied” causes of action that, for several decades, this Court was prone to discover in — or, more accurately, create in reliance upon — federal legislation. See Thompson v. Thompson, 484 U. S. 174, 190 (1988) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment). Raising up causes of action where a statute has not created them may be a proper function for common-law courts, but not for federal tribunals. See id., at 191-192 ; Cannon v. University of Chicago, 441 U. S. 677, 730-749 (1979) (Powell, J., dissenting). We have done so, however, and thus the question arises what statute of limitations applies to such a suit. Congress has not had the opportunity (since it did not itself create the cause of action) to consider whether it is content with the state limitations or would prefer to craft its own rule. That lack of opportunity is particularly apparent in the present case, since Congress did create special limitations periods for the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 causes of actions that it actually enacted. See 15 U. S. C. §§78p(b), 78i(e), 78r(c); see also §77m.

When confronted with this situation, the only thing to be said for applying my ordinary (and the Court’s pre-1983 traditional) rule is that the unintended and possibly irrational results will certainly deter judicial invention of causes of action. That is not an unworthy goal, but to pursue it in that fashion would be highly unjust to those who must litigate past inventions. An alternative approach would be to say that since we “implied” the cause of action we ought to “imply” an appropriate statute of limitations as well. That is just enough, but too lawless to be imagined. It seems to me the most responsible approach, where the enactment that has been the occasion for our creation of a cause of action contains a limitations period for an analogous cause of action, is to use *366 that. We are imagining here. And I agree with the Court that “[w]e can imagine no clearer indication of how Congress would have balanced the policy considerations implicit in any limitations provision than the balance struck by the same Congress in limiting similar and related protections.” Ante, at 359.

I join the judgment of the Court, and of the Court’s opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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