United States First Circuit

In an action for judicial review brought pursuant to 29 U.S.C. section 722(c)(5)(J), the choice to default to the federal statute of limitations under 28 U.S.C. section 1658(a) is affirmed, where: 1) plaintiff’s original state complaint was dismissed with a recommendation to amend the complaint as one for judicial review under section 722(c)(5)(J); 2) Maine has a 30-day statute of limitations for judicial review of administrative decisions, which would render the amendment futile, but the district court applied the federal 4-year statute of limitations instead; 3) section 1658 is not a constraint on the plaintiff’s judicial review request as the 1998 enactment of section 722(c)(5)(J) created a new, broad remedy to disputes about specific applications of the state administrative process; and 4) as there is no explicit specific limitations period under section 722(c)(5)(J), the catch-all 4-year limitations period applies.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/11/2014
• Published 08/11/2014

Judges

• SELYA

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel