Track

Status

Governing provision

Nine offenses have no limitation where the victim was a child — § 5551(7): a prosecution may be commenced at any time for “An offense under any of the following provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. (relating to crimes and offenses), or a conspiracy or solicitation to commit an offense under any of the following provisions of 18 Pa.C.S. if the offense results from the conspiracy or solicitation, if the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the offense: Section 3011(b) (relating to trafficking in individuals). Section 3012 (relating to involuntary servitude) as it relates to sexual servitude. Section 3121 (relating to rape). Section 3122.1 (relating to statutory sexual assault). Section 3123 (relating to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse). Section 3124.1 (relating to sexual assault). Section 3124.2 (relating to institutional sexual assault). Section 3125 (relating to aggravated indecent assault). Section 4302 (relating to incest).” Paragraph (7) was added by Act 87 of 2019. 

BUT SIX MORE SEXUAL OFFENSES AGAINST CHILDREN KEEP A DEADLINE — § 5552(c)(3): “Any sexual offense committed against a minor who is less than 18 years of age any time up to the later of the period of limitation provided by law after the minor has reached 18 years of age or the date the minor reaches 55 years of age.” The offenses listed are § 3126 (indecent assault), § 3127 (indecent exposure), § 4304 (endangering welfare of children), § 6301 (corruption of minors), § 6312(b) (sexual abuse of children) and § 6320 (sexual exploitation of children). The deadline is the survivor’s fifty-fifth birthday. 

AND THE 18-TO-23 GROUP IS SHORTER STILL — § 5552(c)(3.1): “Any sexual offense committed against an individual who is 23 years of age or younger any time up to the later of the period of limitation provided by law after the individual has reached 24 years of age or 20 years after the date of the offense.” The list here includes § 3011(a) as it relates to sexual servitude, § 3012, § 3121(a) and (b), § 3123(a), § 3124.1, § 3124.2(a) and (b), § 3125(a), § 3126, § 3127 and § 4302(a). 

The general sexual-offense period, where § 5551(7) does not apply — § 5552(b.1): “Except as provided in section 5551(7) (relating to no limitation applicable), a prosecution for any of the following offenses under Title 18 must be commenced within 12 years after it is committed”, listing rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, incest and sexual abuse of children. The twelve years therefore governs those offenses where the victim was eighteen or over. 

The baseline — § 5552(a): “Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, a prosecution for an offense must be commenced within two years after it is committed.” § 5552(b) sets five years for a long list of major offenses. 

DNA extends — § 5552(c.1): where DNA evidence of a misdemeanor sexual offense under (c)(3) or (3.1), or of a felony offense, later identifies an otherwise unidentified perpetrator, prosecution may be commenced within the ordinary period “or one year after the identity of the individual is determined, whichever is later.”

42 Pa.C.S. § 5551 — Pennsylvania General Assembly, official consolidated statutes 

42 Pa.C.S. ch. 55 (Limitation of Time) — Pennsylvania General Assembly, official consolidated statutes, carrying §§ 5533, 5551 and 5552

Thirty-seven years past majority — § 5533(b)(2)(i): “If an individual entitled to bring a civil action arising from sexual abuse is under 18 years of age at the time the cause of action accrues, the individual shall have a period of 37 years after attaining 18 years of age in which to commence an action for damages regardless of whether the individual files a criminal complaint regarding the sexual abuse.” The deadline is the survivor’s fifty-fifth birthday. 

The 18-to-23 group — § 5533(b)(2)(i.1): “If an individual entitled to bring a civil action arising from sexual abuse is at least 18 and less than 24 years of age at the time the cause of action occurs, the individual shall have until attaining 30 years of age to commence an action for damages regardless of whether the individual files a criminal complaint regarding the sexual abuse.” 

A FORCIBLE-COMPULSION PROVISO SITS IN THE DEFINITION — § 5533(b)(2)(ii): “For the purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘sexual abuse’ shall include, but not be limited to, the following sexual activities between an individual who is 23 years of age or younger and an adult, provided that the individual bringing the civil action engaged in such activities as a result of forcible compulsion or by threat of forcible compulsion which would prevent resistance by a person of reasonable resolution”, followed by definitions of sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse and indecent contact. § 5533(b)(2)(iii) takes “forcible compulsion” from 18 Pa.C.S. § 3101. 

The words “include, but not be limited to” matter. On one reading the proviso qualifies only the enumerated activities and other forms of sexual abuse are covered without proof of forcible compulsion; on another it conditions the whole extended period. The difference decides whether a survivor groomed rather than forced has thirty-seven years past majority or the ordinary two years under § 5524(2). Pennsylvania practitioners will have a settled view; none was retrieved and nothing is asserted here. 

The ordinary rule this displaces — § 5533(b)(1)(i): an unemancipated minor’s period of minority is not counted, and the minor “shall have the same time for commencing an action after attaining majority as is allowed to others by the provisions of this subchapter” — which for personal injury is the two years in § 5524(2). 

And a notice trap that Act 87 closed — § 5522(a) requires six months’ written notice before suing a government unit. Act 87 added § 5522(c): the section “shall not apply to any civil action or proceeding brought under section 8522(b)(10) (relating to exceptions to sovereign immunity) or 8542(b)(9) (relating to exceptions to governmental immunity)”, the sexual abuse exceptions. 

Fifty-five puts Pennsylvania level with New Jersey at the top of the fixed-deadline group. The feature that matters is not the number but the forcible-compulsion proviso in the § 5533(b)(2)(ii) definition, which is examined in the open questions below.

42 Pa.C.S. ch. 55 (Limitation of Time) — Pennsylvania General Assembly, official consolidated statutes, carrying § 5533

Chapter 55 was read in full — Subchapter A (§§ 5501 to 5505), Subchapter B (§§ 5521 to 5539) and Subchapter C (§§ 5551 to 5552) — and contains no revival provision for sexual abuse claims. Act 87 rewrote § 5533(b)(2), added § 5551(7), added § 5522(c) and amended § 5552; none of those reaches an expired claim. 

The legislature has said in this very section that it does not revive. The note printed with § 5533 records: “2002 Amendment. Act 86 amended subsec. (b). Section 3 of Act 86 provided that the amendment of subsec. (b) shall not be applied to revive an action which has been barred by an existing statute of limitations on the effective date of Act 86.” The 2002 amendment is the one that first extended the childhood period to twelve years past majority; the legislature attached an express anti-revival clause to it. 

Act 87 of 2019 carries its own applicability provisions — the notes to §§ 5522, 5533, 5551 and 5552 each refer to “sections 9 and 10” of Act 87 in the appendix to Title 42 for special provisions relating to severability and applicability. Those appendix sections were not retrieved and their text is not stated here. What can be said from the sections themselves is that no reviving language appears in the enacted text of any of them. 

The one general revival in the chapter is historical and unrelated — the note to Subchapter B records that section 25(a) of Act 142 of 1976 gave a one-year grace period for actions whose limitation period that Act shortened. Nothing comparable exists for sexual abuse.

42 Pa.C.S. ch. 55 — Pennsylvania General Assembly, official consolidated statutes (the anti-revival note to the 2002 amendment is printed with § 5533)