Statute of Limitations

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Robert Lance Wilson v. Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, et al.

Case No.: 16-1831

Officials: BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Statute of Limitations

Wilson’s appellate lawyer contends that the doctrine of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), comes to his rescue. Heck holds that a prisoner cannot use §1983 to challenge the validity of his conviction or to obtain other relief that necessarily implies the conviction’s invalidity. Instead, the Court stated, any §1983 litigation must be deferred until the conviction has been set aside by appeal, collateral review, or pardon. The Court added that as long as the custody lasts, the statute of limitations does not run: “a §1983 cause of action for damages attributable to an unconstitutional conviction or sentence does not accrue until the conviction or sentence has been invalidated.” 512 U.S. at 489–90. Heck was extended to prison disciplinary proceedings in Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641 (1997). Wilson contends that we should further extend Heck to professional disciplinary proceedings.

By asking the district judge to dismiss the first suit—and thus to set a potential trap for Wilson under the statute of limitations— the defendants brought into play a second doctrine: equitable estoppel. But we need not decide whether the defendants’ motion to dismiss Wilson’s first suit estops them from pleading the statute of limitations once federal litigation resumed. It is enough to conclude that Wilson did not have a complete federal claim under §1983 until May 2014, when proceedings in state court ended, so as a matter of federal law his federal claim did not accrue until then. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Vacated and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.