Which clocks start the day you are hurt

Minnesota does not have one injury deadline. It has a general six-year limitation, several much shorter ones, at least three notice periods that expire long before any of them, and a rule about when a lawsuit counts as started that surprises people.

The single most repeated number about Minnesota injury claims is two years. For the ordinary case — someone drove into you, someone let a dog off a leash, someone did not shovel — it is wrong, and it is wrong in the direction that makes people give up claims they still have. The general limitation is six years. What is also true, and much less repeated, is that several notice periods run out in six months or less, and missing one of those can end a claim that had five and a half years left on its main clock.

The general rule: six years

Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1 opens “Except where the Uniform Commercial Code otherwise prescribes, the following actions shall be commenced within six years,” and clause (5) reads:

(5) for criminal conversation, or for any other injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract, and not hereinafter enumerated;

The Minnesota Supreme Court has applied that clause to exactly the kind of case people assume is a two-year case. In Hermeling v. Minnesota Fire & Casualty Co., 548 N.W.2d 270 (Minn. 1996), a passenger was injured when the car he was riding in was struck from behind; the court described “the six-year statute of limitations for negligence actions. Minn.Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1(5),” and held that it ran from the date of the accident rather than from a later date on which an insurer substituted a settlement draft.

The exceptions that are shorter

Claims against a health care provider — four years. Minn. Stat. § 541.076(b): an action by a patient or former patient against a health care provider “alleging malpractice, error, mistake, or failure to cure, whether based on a contract or tort, must be commenced within four years from the date the cause of action accrued.” Paragraph (a) defines health care provider to include a physician, surgeon, dentist, occupational therapist, other health care professionals as defined in § 145.61, a hospital, or a treatment facility.

Wrongful death — three years, capped at six. Section 573.02, subd. 1 permits an action within three years after the date of death “provided that the action must be commenced within six years after the act or omission.” A death claim founded on professional negligence by a physician, surgeon, dentist, hospital or sanitarium, or their employee runs three years from the date of death and never past the § 541.076 limit. The section also imposes a structural step that has nothing to do with the calendar: under subdivision 3, the action is brought by a trustee whom the court appoints on written petition by the surviving spouse or one of the next of kin. The family does not hold the claim directly.

Dram shop — two years, and a notice clock keyed to something unusual. Minn. Stat. § 340A.802, subd. 2 closes with “No action may be maintained under section 340A.801 unless commenced within two years after the injury.” The same subdivision opens with a notice requirement whose trigger is not the injury at all:

In the case of a claim for damages, the notice must be served by the claimant's attorney within 240 days of the date of entering an attorney-client relationship with the person in regard to the claim.

That is 240 days from the day the lawyer is hired, not 240 days from the night of the collision, and the statute states that no action for damages may be maintained unless the notice has been given. Subdivision 1 specifies the contents: the time and date when and person to whom the alcoholic beverages were sold or bartered, the names and addresses of the injured, and the approximate time, date, and place of the injury. Under subdivision 2, actual notice of sufficient facts reasonably putting the licensee or municipality on notice of a possible claim complies. And subdivision 3 attaches a penalty to getting it wrong on purpose: a claimant who in bad faith serves notice on a licensee that did not sell or barter liquor to the alleged intoxicated person is liable for actual damages including the licensee’s reasonable out-of-pocket attorney fees.

The notice periods that end claims quietly

A city, county, school district, or other municipality — 180 days. Section 466.05, subd. 1 requires a claimant to present to the governing body of the municipality, within 180 days after the alleged loss or injury is discovered, a notice stating the time, place and circumstances, the names of the municipal employees known to be involved, and the amount of compensation or other relief demanded. Three softeners are written into the same subdivision: actual notice of sufficient facts reasonably putting the governing body or its insurer on notice of a possible claim complies; failure to state the amount demanded does not invalidate the notice, though full information must follow within 15 days after demand; and the running time excludes any period during which the injured person is incapacitated by the injury from giving notice. Subdivision 2 gives one year where the claim is for death by wrongful act or omission.

The state of Minnesota — 180 days. Section 3.736, subd. 5 is the parallel provision, with the notice presented to the attorney general — or, for a claim against the University of Minnesota, to the person the regents designate as university attorney — and to any state employee from whom compensation will be sought. Subdivision 6 again gives one year for a wrongful death claim.

Both statutes cap liability rather than only timing it. Section 3.736, subd. 4(c) limits the state’s total liability, for claims arising on or after July 1, 2009, to $500,000 for a death claim and the same figure to any one claimant in any other case, and subdivision 4(g) sets $1,500,000 for any number of claims arising out of a single occurrence. Section 466.04, subd. 1(a)(3) and (7) set the same two limits for municipalities on the same date, and subdivision 1(b) forbids punitive damages against a municipality entirely.

The no-fault clocks are their own system

Minnesota’s No-Fault Act runs on separate timing rules, and § 65B.49, subd. 10 states both of them in two sentences:

(a) Unless expressly provided for in this chapter, a plan of reparation security must conform to the six-year time limitation provided under section 541.05, subdivision 1, clause (1).

(b) The time limitation for commencing a cause of action relating to underinsured motorist coverage under subdivision 3a is four years from the date of accrual.

Separately, § 65B.55, subd. 1 lets a policy prescribe a claim-notification period, and then limits the consequence of missing it:

A plan of reparation security may prescribe a period of not less than six months after the date of accident within which an insured or any other person entitled to claim basic economic loss benefits, or anyone acting on their behalf, must notify the reparation obligor or its agent, of the accident and the possibility of a claim for economic loss benefits. Failure to provide notice will not render a person ineligible to receive benefits unless actual prejudice is shown by the reparation obligor, and then only to the extent of the prejudice. The notice may be given in any reasonable fashion.

Two Minnesota provisions require an insurer to warn about these deadlines. Section 72A.201, subd. 4(8) makes it an unfair settlement practice to fail to advise, in writing, an insured or claimant with a known unresolved claim who has not retained an attorney, of the expiration of a statute of limitations at least 60 days before it expires — with an exception where the insurer has received no communication from the claimant for the two years preceding the expiration. Subdivision 6(11) requires written notice at least 60 days before the expiration of a § 65B.55 policy time limitation. Both are administrative standards. Under § 72A.201, subd. 1, no individual violation of the section constitutes an unlawful practice for purposes of Minn. Stat. § 8.31, so the warning duty is enforced by the Commissioner of Commerce rather than by a private suit.

Minors, and the disability suspension

Section 541.15(a) suspends the running of a limitation period for enumerated grounds of disability existing when the cause of action accrued or arising during the period, “provided that such period, except in the case of infancy, shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases.” Clause (1) is “that the plaintiff is within the age of 18 years.” The five-year outer cap is carved out for infancy in paragraph (a); paragraph (b) then sets a different structure for claims against health care providers, where the minority suspension “may not be extended for more than seven years, or for more than one year after the disability ceases.” Where two or more disabilities coexist, the suspension continues until all are removed.

Serving is starting; filing is a second deadline

This is the rule that most often surprises people who have watched courtroom television, and it is the reverse of the federal practice. Minn. R. Civ. P. 3.01:

A civil action is commenced against each defendant:

(a) when the summons is served upon that defendant; or

(b) at the date of signing a waiver of service pursuant to Rule 4.05; or

(c) when the summons is delivered for service to the sheriff in the county where the defendant resides personally, by U.S. Mail (postage prepaid), by commercial courier with proof of delivery, or by electronic means consented to by the sheriff's office either in writing or electronically; but such delivery shall be ineffectual unless within 60 days thereafter the summons is actually served on that defendant or the first publication thereof is made.

Filing is then governed by Rule 5.04(a):

Any action that is not filed with the court within one year of commencement against any party is deemed dismissed with prejudice against all parties unless the parties within that year sign a stipulation to extend the filing period. . . .

“Deemed dismissed with prejudice” is not a warning about a docket. It is the end of the case, produced by inaction, on a clock that starts at service rather than at injury.

What this page is not

It is an inventory of the clocks Minnesota law starts, with the text that starts them. It is not a calculation of any deadline for any reader. Which limitation governs a claim depends on the tort pleaded, the identity of the defendant, when the injury was discovered, and who was a minor when — and getting the answer wrong by one category can move a date by four years in either direction.