28 U.S.C. § 2501 - Time for filing suit

• Cite as: 28 U.S.C. § 2501

Every claim of which the United States Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction shall be barred unless the petition thereon is filed within six years after such claim first accrues.

Every claim under section 1497 of this title shall be barred unless the petition thereon is filed within two years after the termination of the river and harbor improvements operations on which the claim is based.

A petition on the claim of a person under legal disability or beyond the seas at the time the claim accrues may be filed within three years after the disability ceases.

A suit for the fees of an officer of the United States shall not be filed until his account for such fees has been finally acted upon, unless the Government Accountability Office fails to act within six months after receiving the account.

Cite as 28 U.S.C. § 2501

Source: June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 976; Sept. 3, 1954, ch. 1263, §52, 68 Stat. 1246; Pub. L. 97-164, title I, §139(a), Apr. 2, 1982, 96 Stat. 42; Pub. L. 102-572, title IX, §902(a)(1), Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4516; Pub. L. 108-271, §8(b), July 7, 2004, 118 Stat. 814.

Notes from the Office of Law Revision Counsel

current through 5/22/2023

HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES

Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §§250(2), 250a, and 262 (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, §§145, 156, 36 Stat. 1136, 1139; June 10, 1921, ch. 18, §304, 42 Stat. 24; Aug. 30, 1935, ch. 831, §13, 49 Stat. 1049; July 13, 1943, ch. 231, 57 Stat. 553).

Section consolidates limitation provisions of sections 250(2), 250a, and 262 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed.

Words "a person under legal disability or beyond the seas at the time the claim accrues" were substituted for "married women first accrued during marriage, of persons under the age of twenty-one years first accrued during minority, and of idiots, lunatics, insane persons, and persons beyond the seas at the time the claim accrued; entitled to the claim,". The revised language will cover all legal disabilities actually barring suit. For example, the particular reference to married women is archaic, and is eliminated by use of the general language substituted.