Russell Packard Development, Inc., a California Corporation; and Lawrence M. Russell, an Individual, Plaintiffs And…

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court, on certiorari, clarified the law of tolling under the concealment version of the discovery rule. It held that equitable discovery-rule exceptions apply only to statutes of limitations lacking an internal ("statutory") discovery rule, and that a plaintiff may invoke concealment tolling either by showing no knowledge or reasonable means of knowledge before the fixed period expired, or by showing that a reasonably diligent plaintiff may have delayed filing past expiration despite earlier knowledge. Although the court of appeals applied the wrong legal standard, the Supreme Court agreed that the district court improperly dismissed plaintiffs' four-year claims because whether plaintiffs should be charged with constructive notice during the final five months of the period, and whether they reasonably delayed, are questions for the fact-finder. The court affirmed the court of appeals and remanded, while dismissing plaintiffs' conceded commercial bribery claim.