Nobody loses a case on the statute of limitations because they didn’t know limitations periods existed. They lose because they assumed the general rule applied to their claim, and it didn’t.
Minnesota’s general civil limitations statute is Minn. Stat. § 541.05, and its headline number is six years. That number is right often enough to be dangerous.
What gets six years under § 541.05?
Subdivision 1 provides a six-year period, “[e]xcept where the Uniform Commercial Code otherwise prescribes,” for actions:
- “upon a contract or other obligation, express or implied, as to which no other limitation is expressly prescribed”
- Upon a liability created by statute, other than those “arising upon a penalty or forfeiture or where a shorter period is provided by section 541.07”
- For trespass upon real property
- For taking, detaining, or injuring personal property, including actions for specific recovery
- For other injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract and not otherwise enumerated
- For relief on the ground of fraud — “in which case the cause of action shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud”
- Against sureties on official bonds of public officers, running from the end of the officer’s term
- For damages caused by a dam used commercially
- For assault, battery, false imprisonment, or other tort resulting in personal injury, where the conduct constitutes domestic abuse
Read clause (1) again. The whole trap is in it: six years applies to a contract claim “as to which no other limitation is expressly prescribed.” It’s the default, and it gives way whenever anything more specific exists. Something more specific very often exists.
The fraud discovery rule
Clause (6) is one of the most important provisions in Minnesota civil practice. A fraud claim doesn’t accrue “until the discovery by the aggrieved party of the facts constituting the fraud.”
That’s a real discovery rule, and it’s why fraud claims can be brought on transactions far older than six years.
But in practice it has limits. Discovery includes what a reasonably diligent person would have discovered, and a plaintiff who had reason to investigate and didn’t may be charged with the knowledge an investigation would have turned up. “I did not actually know” is a weaker position than it sounds.
Four years for strict product liability
Subdivision 2 carves out a much shorter period: “Unless otherwise provided by law, any action based on the strict liability of the defendant and arising from the manufacture, sale, use or consumption of a product shall be commenced within four years.”
Four, not six. This one catches people because a product case often feels like a personal injury case, and it’s easy to reason from the wrong default.
Which clocks are shorter than six years?
This isn’t an exhaustive list, and that’s the point of the section. But these are the ones that most often surprise Minnesotans:
| Claim type | Period |
|---|---|
| Most contract and general tort claims | 6 years (§ 541.05, subd. 1) |
| Strict product liability | 4 years (§ 541.05, subd. 2) |
| Sale of goods under the UCC | 4 years (Minn. Stat. § 336.2-725) |
| Defamation, and certain intentional torts | 2 years (Minn. Stat. § 541.07) |
| Professional malpractice against certain professionals | shorter than 6 — verify by profession |
| Improvements to real property | governed by Minn. Stat. § 541.051, with its own accrual and repose structure |
| Wrongful death | governed by its own statute, Minn. Stat. § 573.02 |
| Mechanic’s liens | 1 year to sue, plus a 120-day recording deadline — see our three clocks piece |
| Claims against governmental entities | notice requirements that can run in months, not years |
Two structural points matter more than any single number.
Notice requirements aren’t limitations periods, and they run first. Claims against municipalities and other public entities frequently require written notice within a short window. Miss the notice and the limitations period doesn’t matter.
A statute of repose is different from a statute of limitations. A limitations period runs from when the claim accrues. A repose period runs from a fixed event — substantial completion of construction, for example — and can wipe out a claim before the injury ever happens. Minnesota’s improvement-to-real-property statute works this way, and it’s why a building defect discovered in year fifteen may have no remedy at all.
When does the clock start?
Accrual is a separate question from duration, and it gets litigated constantly.
- Contract claims generally accrue at breach, not at damage, and not at discovery.
- Tort claims generally accrue when the cause of action is complete — often when damage occurs.
- Fraud accrues at discovery, under clause (6).
- Continuing violations and installment obligations can produce a series of accrual dates rather than one.
The rules that can extend a period — tolling for minority or incapacity, a defendant’s absence from the state, fraudulent concealment — are real. But they’re exceptions with their own requirements, and you shouldn’t rely on any of them without checking.
What to do about it
If you think you have a claim:
- Treat the earliest plausible date as the real one. If the claim might have accrued in March 2020 or March 2022, calendar from 2020.
- Don’t let settlement talks run out the clock. Negotiation doesn’t toll anything. A defendant who’s being pleasant while the deadline gets closer may just be patient.
- If a deadline is near, file. A filed case can be negotiated. A time-barred case can’t.
- Identify every theory early. The same facts may support contract, fraud, statutory, and tort claims with four different clocks, and the longest one is only available if you pleaded it in time.
- Ask about notice requirements right away if any government entity is involved.
- Get a real answer for the claim you actually have. The table above is orientation, not an opinion. Which statute governs a specific claim is a legal question with a specific answer.
If you’re defending:
Limitations is an affirmative defense, and it’s generally waived if not pleaded. It’s also one of the few defenses that can end a case at the pleading stage, before the cost of discovery. That makes the accrual analysis one of the first things worth doing carefully.
Why these rules exist, and why they feel unfair
Limitations periods exist because evidence decays. Witnesses die, memories rebuild themselves, documents get destroyed on retention schedules, and at some point a defendant can’t meaningfully defend. The law would rather have a rule that occasionally bars a meritorious claim than a system where nothing is ever final.
That reasoning is sound, and it’s no comfort at all to the person who shows up in year seven with a real injury and no remedy.
The only protection is calendar discipline, and the time for it is early, while the deadline still looks comfortably far away.
Madgett Law, LLC evaluates Minnesota civil claims, including which limitations period applies and when it started to run, and defends claims on limitations and repose grounds. If you’re not sure how much time you have, that question is worth answering now, not later. Send us a message or call 612-470-6529.
Sources: Minn. Stat. § 541.05, subd. 1 (six-year periods, including the fraud discovery rule at clause (6)) and subd. 2 (four years for strict product liability); Minn. Stat. §§ 541.051, 541.07, 336.2-725, 573.02, 514.12 (one-year mechanic’s-lien enforcement period), 514.08 (120-day lien recording deadline) (Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes). Periods and accrual rules other than § 541.05 are identified here for orientation. This article is general legal information about Minnesota law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Which limitations period applies to a particular claim, and when it accrued, depends entirely on the facts. No outcome is promised or implied.