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Time-barred

By: Derek Hawkins//September 7, 2021//

Time-barred

By: Derek Hawkins//September 7, 2021//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Keith Smith v. City of Chicago, et al.,

Case No.: 19-2725

Officials: FLAUM, ROVNER, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Time-barred

“Better late than never” is not a phrase typically heard in a federal courthouse. Even meritorious claims brought outside their statute of limitations must be dismissed. Keith Smith sued the City of Chicago and two of its police officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violating the Fourth Amendment, claiming unlawful pretrial detention based on fabricated evidence. Rather than resolve the appeal on the merits, we must decide whether Smith timely filed his complaint, a question which depends on when his claim accrued. Smith argues that happened when he was acquitted at trial. If it did, then his complaint was timely. But our precedent establishes that a Fourth Amendment claim such as Smith’s accrues when he is released from detention, and the Supreme Court’s recent decision in McDonough v. Smith, 139 S. Ct. 2149 (2019), has not disturbed that conclusion. Smith was released on bond on March 29, 2014, so if his claim accrued then, under the applicable two-year limitations period his lawsuit, filed on July 18, 2018, was untimely.

Alternatively, Smith contends his claim was timely because his bond conditions constituted an ongoing Fourth Amendment seizure, so he was not released from custody until he was acquitted. Squarely reaching this issue for the first time in this circuit, we hold that requirements to appear in court for a hearing and to request permission before leaving the state—taken together or separately—do not amount to Fourth Amendment seizures. Smith’s accrual date remains the date he was released on bond, and because his claim was untimely, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of his complaint.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.

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