Borrowing Statutes
Claims that cannot be filed anywhere else in the country, might be filed in Minnesota -- because of two laws.
The first law is a 6 years' statute of limitations for negligence actions, as opposed to 2 years in Pennsylvania. Minnesota also appears to have a 6 years' statute for contract actions, as opposed to Pennsylvania's 4 years' limit. That information alone may not help much, because states have "borrowing statutes", which provide that a lawsuit which would be time-barred in the state where filed, if it would be barred in the state where the cause of action accrued -- unless one of the parties resides there. This leads to the second
unusual law. In Minnesota, there was no "borrowing statute" from 1978 until August 1, 2004. If the cause of action accrued before August 1, 2004, it could be filed in Minnesota even though it would be barred in the states of residence of the parties and the state where the cause of action accrued.
So, this leads to 2 questions.
1. Is there a possible cause of action in contract or negligence which accrued between January 1, 2002, and August 1, 2004?
2. If the answer to #1 is "yes", then did a prospective defendant have sufficient contacts in Minnesota to justify suing them there? Did they do business there? Have a registered agent? Send in a salesperson?
A contract claim that accrued in Pennsylvania during 2003 and which would be barred here and probably anywhere else in the country might still be available if filed in Minnesota.
