LIMITATION OF ACTIONS, a legal limitation to the period within which actions may be brought, varying usually in the United States from 6 years or less to 20 years. The sound policy of placing a reasonable limit to the time within which actions might be brought was early recognized in the law, 'and among those who enforced this were the Romans, who looked upon it as a proper punishment for the person who failed to assert his rights. They qualified it, however, by exempting lunatics and minors under 14 years of age — an exception that is recognized, with some modificatioqs, in modern codes. The difficulty of preserving evi dence.f or a long time, the death of witnesses, the probability that old demands are bad ones, the necessity of obviating uncertainties in titles and claims, and the discouragement of long credits, are also given as grounds for placing limitations on actions. In English law, it was first adopted in the reign of Edward I by stat ute. Equity likewise recognized at an early period the justice of the principle.
By the weight of authority, actions for de termining a status, and not to adjust claims against a particular defendant, are not limited. Examples of these are the validity of a mar riage or other legal relation, the genuineness of a written instrument, or the like.
In actions on contracts not under seal, as a general rule, both in England and in the United States, no action can be brought after six years, and the time is computed from the time the plaintiff could legally have brought his action.
In the case of a bill of exchange payable at sight, the time is computed from the date of presentment. In actions upon contracts under seal or actions affecting the title to real estate, suit must be brought within 20 years. Any part payment of the debt or interest thereon or a new promise to pay it operates to suspend the statute, but it begins to run again immediately after the part payment or new promise. The promise may be expressed or implied. It has been held that an unqualified acknowledgment of the debt will be considered in law an implied promise to pay. It is provided generally by statutes in the United States and Great Britain that the limitation will not run if the plaintiff is under disabilities, as coverture, minority, im prisonment, lunacy or absence from the coun try. Fraud of the defendant which prevents the plaintiff from asserting his right will also, as a general rule, prevent the statute from run ning until the plaintiff discovers such fraud: In actions of tort there is less uniformity in the statutes of the United States than in actions of contract as to the time when suit is barred. This varies in the case of torts from two to six years.