A lot of claims arising when defective products cause injuries involve products that are fairly old. In many states, including Texas, there are statutes that cut off the right to bring a personal injury lawsuit concerning these very old products. These statutes are called statutes of repose.
WHAT IS A STATUTE OF REPOSE?
Generally, a statute of repose provides that after a certain amount of time has passed since a product was sold, there can be no lawsuit alleging an injury caused by that product. In Texas, for example, the statute of repose that applies to most products* is 15 years. Once 15 years have passed from the date that the product was first sold, a claim alleging that the product was defective and caused an injury is forbidden in most circumstances.
This may sound a lot like a statute of limitations, and both types of statutes have the same general intent to require injured persons to bring lawsuits as soon as feasible. But a statute of repose operates in a number of ways that are different than a statute of limitations. These types of laws are similar: each provides that a person cannot bring certain personal injury claims after a certain amount of time has passed.
HOW ARE STATUTES OF REPOSE AND STATUTES
OF LIMITATIONS DIFFERENT?
A statute of limitations gives a specific amount of time after an accident or injury for the injured person to file a personal injury lawsuit. In many cases, the statute of limitations may provide 2 years from the date of the injury or accident to start the lawsuit. If the plaintiff fails to bring a suit within that time period, the claim can be barred.
By comparison, a statute of repose has no direct relationship to when the injury occurs. That statute, instead, says that a lawsuit concerning a product must be brought no later than (in Texas) 15 years from the date the product was sold. If more than 15 years have passed, the suit is barred.
Thus, if a product sold exactly 14 years earlier causes injury to a person because of a defect in that product, the product liability lawsuit must be filed within 1 year of the date of the accident, even though the statute of limitations for that claim might normally allow a person 2 years to bring suit for the injury.
That relates to another important difference between statutes of repose and statutes of limitations. Statutes of limitations can be stopped for periods of time (or “tolled”) for a variety of reasons, most of those related to fairness or equity. For instance, in some cases, a statute of limitations may not start running if the injured person is a minor; in other cases, the statute of limitations may not start running if the party who caused the injury hid or concealed evidence that it was responsible. Where those sorts of things happen, the injured party will typically be allowed to show that it has additional time to file suit.
A statute of repose, though, generally does not stop running for any reason. In that sense, the statute of repose is stricter than a statute of limitations. In a products liability case, for example, the only fact that matters for purposes of applying a statute of repose is the date the product was sold.**
CONCLUSION
In most cases, statutes of repose do not have any impact. But where a product has caused an injury, it is prudent to determine (if reasonably possible) when the product was sold. This protects the injured person from the possibility that a claim concerning an older product will be inadvertently lost by the passage of time.
Written by**:
Michael J. Murray
Board Certified – Civil Appellate Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
WATTS GUERRA LLP
4 Dominion Drive, Bldg 3, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Phone (210) 447-0500
Email: mmurray@guerrallp.com
* Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.012(b)(with certain exceptions, “a claimant must commence a products liability action against a manufacturer or seller of a product before the end of 15 years after the date of the sale of the product by the defendant.”).
** This again, will vary from state-to-state. Likewise, any particular state may have a statute-of-repose applicable to product liability actions and other statutes of repose that apply to other types of actions. Statutes of repose exist in a variety of legal contexts.
** This information is provided to supply information relating civil litigation in general, and should not be received as legal advice. Legal advice is only given to persons or entities with whom Watts Guerra LLP has established an attorney-client relationship. If you have a lawyer, you should consult with your own attorney, and rely upon his or her advice, rather than the information contained herein.
© Watts Guerra LLP 2015
