FRAUDULENT CONCEALMENT AND STATUTES OF LIMITATION

In a recent article the writer has discussed a common exception to statutes of limitation - the exception for claims based on undiscovered "fraud." It was there pointed out how useful this exception has been made through the wide definition of "fraud" that is now fully established. By judicial decision "fraud" has been extended far beyond the field of misrepresentation of fact into the twilight zones of "constructive fraud" and out toward the open spaces of naked tort. But some boundaries had to be fixed even to the extension of substantive principles by the painless process of definition. There remained important types of wrongdoing, accomplished characteristically in secret, which courts hesitated to describe as "fraud" and which they refused. to bring within the "fraud" exception.

In these cases the essential reasons for suspension of the statute might exist in equal degree. That is to say, the plaintiff's ignorance of the existence of a claim might in fact prevent the commencement of suit, and at the same time might appear to be excused by the character of the defendant's wrong. It is the purpose of this paper to inquire how far cases of the latter type have been cared for by direct legislation and judicial manipulation of limitation acts.