AMERICAN SAMOA

Actions may be brought within the following times after their causes accrue, and not afterward, except where otherwise especially declared:

(1) actions brought to set aside a will, within 6 months from the time the will is filed in the clerk’s office for probate and notice thereof is given;

(2) actions founded on injuries to the person or reputation, including injuries to relative rights, whether based on contract or tort, or for a statutory penalty, within 2 years;

(3) actions founded on unwritten contracts, or brought for injuries to property, within 3 years;

(4) actions to set aside a judgment or decree quieting title to real estate, within 5 years after the rendition of the judgment or decree;

(5) actions founded on written contracts, or a judgment of a court of record, within 10 years;

(6) actions brought for the recovery of real property, within 20 years;

(7) all actions for which no limitation period is provided, 3 years.

(a) A prosecution for any class A felony may be commenced at any time.

(b) Except as otherwise provided in this section, prosecutions for other offenses must be commenced within the following periods of limitation:

(1) for any felony, 3 years;

(2) for any misdemeanor, 1 year;

(3) for any infraction, 6 months.

(c) If the period prescribed in subsection (b) has expired, a prosecution may nevertheless be commenced for:

(1) any offense a material element of which is either fraud or a breach of fiduciary obligation within 1 year after discovery of the offense by an aggrieved party or by a person who has a legal duty to represent an aggrieved party and who is himself not a party to the offense, but in no case shall this provision extend the period of limitation by more than 3 years; and

(2) any offense based upon misconduct in office by a public officer or employee at any time when the defendant is in public office or employment or within 2 years thereafter but in no case shall this provision extend the period of limitation by more than 3 years.

(d) An offense is committed either when every element occurs, or, if a legislative purpose to prohibit a continuing course of conduct plainly appears, at the time when the course of conduct or the defendant’s complicity in it is terminated. Time starts to run on the day after the offense is committed.

(e) A prosecution is commenced and is pending either when a criminal complaint or an information is filed.

(f) The period of limitation does not run:

(1) during anytime when the accused is absent from the territory but in no case does this provision extend the period of limitation otherwise applicable by more than 3 years; or

(2) during any time when the accused is concealing himself from justice either within or outside this territory; or

(3) during any time when a prosecution against the accused for the offense is pending in this territory.