common-law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prec ...

legal systems, laches ( , ;

Law French Law French () is an archaic language originally based on Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England from the 13th century. Its use continued for several centur ...

: , , from ) is a lack of diligence and activity in making a legal claim, or moving forward with legal enforcement of a right, particularly in regard to equity. It is an unreasonable delay that can be viewed as prejudicing the opposing party. When asserted in litigation, it is an equity defense, that is, a defense to a claim for an equitable remedy. It is often understood in comparison to a

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

, a statutory defense, which traditionally is a defense to a claim "at law". The person invoking laches is asserting that an opposing party has "slept on its rights", and that, as a result of this delay, circumstances have changed (witnesses or evidence may have been lost or no longer available, etc.), such that it is no longer a just resolution to grant the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

's claim. Laches is associated with the maxim of equity: "Equity aids the vigilant"not those who sleep on their rights. Put another way, failure to assert one's rights in a timely manner can result in a claim being barred by laches.

Origin, definition, overview

Laches is a legal term derived from the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th The United States Supreme Court case ''Costello v. United States'' 365 US 265, 282 (1961) is often cited for a definition of laches. ''Costello'' defined Laches as "Lack of diligence by the party against whom the defense is asserted combined with prejudice to the party asserting the defense". Invoking laches is a reference to a lack of diligence and activity in making a legal claim, or moving forward with legal enforcement of a right, in particular with regard to equity, and so is an "unreasonable delay pursuing a right or claim, in a way that prejudices the equity (law)">equity, and so is an "unreasonable delay pursuing a right or claim, in a way that prejudices the [opposingparty". When asserted in litigation, it is an Equity (law)">equitable defense, that is, a defense to a claim for an equitable remedy. The essential element of ''laches'' is an unreasonable delay by the plaintiff in bringing the claim; because laches is an equitable defense, it is ordinarily applied only to claims for equitable relief (such as injunctions), and not to claims for legal relief (such as damages). The person invoking laches is asserting that an opposing party has "slept on its rights", and that, as a result of this delay, witnesses or evidence may have been lost or no longer available, and circumstances have changed such that it is no longer just to grant the

's original claim; hence, laches is associated with the maxim of equity: ("Equity aids the vigilant, not the sleeping ones [that is, those who sleep on their rights]"). Put another way, failure to assert one's rights in a timely manner can result in a claim being barred by laches. Sometimes courts will also require that the party invoking the doctrine has changed its position as a result of the delay, but that requirement is more typical of the related (but more stringent) defense and equally cause of action of

estoppel Estoppel is a judicial device whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on their word. The person barred from doing so is said to be "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a particul ...

Components

A claim of laches requires the following components: # a delay in bringing the action, # a delay that is unreasonable and # that prejudices the defendant.

Delay

The period of delay begins when the plaintiff knew, or reasonably ought to have known, that the cause of action existed; the period of delay ends only when the legal action is formally filed. Informing or warning the defendant of the cause of action (for example by sending a cease-and-desist letter or merely ''threatening'' a lawsuit) does ''not'', by itself, end the period of delay.

Unreasonableness

In order to invoke laches, the delay by the opposing party in initiating the lawsuit must be unreasonable. The courts have recognized the following causes of delay as reasonable: * the exhaustion of remedies through the administrative process * the evaluation and preparation of a complicated claim * to determine whether the scope of proposed infringement will justify the cost of litigation By contrast, it is ''not'' reasonable to delay a lawsuit to "capitalize on the value of the infringer's labor". In ''Danjaq v. Sony'', the Ninth Circuit decided that a screenwriter who waited for a film studio to publicize and distribute a film based on a script he allegedly owned had delayed his lawsuit unreasonably.

Prejudice

Unreasonable delay must prejudice the defendant. Examples of such prejudice include: * evidence favorable to the defendant becoming lost or degraded * witnesses favorable to the defendant dying or losing their memories * the defendant making economic decisions (e.g. investing in a movie or a manufacturing process) that it would not have done, had the lawsuit been filed earlier. Unreasonable delay may also prejudice the rights of third-parties who were unknown in the case earlier but whose rights got created in the intervening period of the delay (e.g.: the defendant inducts new persons on a disputed property by sale, or by lease).

Procedure

A defense lawyer raising the defense of ''laches'' against a motion for injunctive relief (a form of equitable relief) might argue that the plaintiff comes "waltzing in at the eleventh hour" when it is now too late to grant the relief sought, at least not without causing great harm that the plaintiff could have avoided. In certain types of cases (for example, cases involving time-sensitive matters, such as elections), a delay of even a few days is likely to be met with a defense of ''laches'', even where the applicable

might allow the type of action to be commenced within a much longer time period. In courts in the United States, laches has often been applied even where a statute of limitations exists, although there is a division of authority on this point. If a court does accept the laches defense, it can decide either to deny the request for equitable relief or to narrow the equitable relief that it would otherwise give. Even if the court denies equitable relief to a plaintiff because of laches, the plaintiff may still have a claim for legal relief if the statute of limitations has not run out. Under the United States

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (officially abbreviated Fed. R. Civ. P.; colloquially FRCP) govern civil procedure in United States district courts. They are the companion to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Rules promulgated by the ...

, ''laches'' is an

affirmative defense An affirmative defense to a civil lawsuit or criminal charge is a fact or set of facts other than those alleged by the plaintiff or prosecutor which, if proven by the defendant, defeats or mitigates the legal consequences of the defendant's ...

, which means that the burden of asserting ''laches'' is on the party responding to the claim to which it applies. The ''laches'' defense does not apply if the claimant was a minor during the time that the claim was not brought, so a party can bring a claim against an historical injustice when they reach their majority.

Compared to statute of limitations

The defense of ''laches'' resembles a

since both are concerned with ensuring that plaintiffs bring their claims in a timely fashion. However, a statute of limitations is concerned only with the time that has passed. Laches is concerned with the reasonableness of the delay in a particular situation and so is more case-specific and more focused on the equitable conduct of the plaintiff. Those considerations are not unique to the laches defense because they are characteristic of equitable reasoning and equitable remedies, whereas limitation is a statutory remedy. In the US, the proper disposal of claims in light of those two areas of law has required attention through to the Supreme Court. In ''

Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ''Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.'', 572 U.S. 663 (2014), is a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court copyright decision in which the Court held 6-3 that the equity (legal concept), equitable defense of laches (equit ...

'' (2014), the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

rebuffed a defendant's claim that laches barred a copyright infringement suit because Congress had established a detailed statutory scheme, including a statute of limitations.

Examples

In the Virginia Republican primary for the 2012 US presidential election, several candidates did not appear on the ballot because they failed to obtain sufficient petition signatures. Four of the unsuccessful candidates—

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 in the first administration of Donald Trump. He previously served as the 47th governor of Texas fr ...

, Jon Huntsman,

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...

, and

Rick Santorum Richard John Santorum Sr. ( ; born May 10, 1958) is an American politician, attorney, author, and political commentator who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2007. He was the Senate's Chairman of the United Sta ...

—sued, claiming that restrictions on the persons allowed to gather signatures were unconstitutional. Their claim was dismissed by the district court on the grounds of laches, because, in the words of the appellate court: The appeals court upheld the dismissal on grounds of laches, but it added that the challenge would likely have succeeded if it had been brought in a timely fashion. In

Grand Haven, Michigan Grand Haven is a city within the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa County. Grand Haven is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River (Michigan), Grand River, for which ...

, the Northwest Ottawa Community Health System sued Grand Haven Township and Health Pointe, which was in the process of building a competing medical facility in the township, arguing that the township ignored its own zoning ordinance in approving the project. On March 24, 2017, as part of a ruling dismissing the lawsuit, Circuit Court Judge Jon A. Van Allsburg noted that the Northwest Ottawa Community Health System waited more than eight months from the date the project was approved before filing the lawsuit and that during that time, defendant Health Pointe had purchased construction materials. The defense of laches is often used as an

patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

lawsuits in the USA. In 2021, the

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has special appellate jurisdiction over certain categories of cases in the U.S. federal ...

allowed the

USPTO The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Ale ...

to use laches as a reason for denying patents to an applicant, who filed hundreds of applications, that were "atypically long and complex", and who filed amendments, which increased the total number of claims to roughly 115,000. This applicant alone forced the USPTO to create an art unit of twelve experienced examiners solely to examine its patents.

Notes

External links

Nair, Manisha Singh (2006) "Laches and Acquiescence"
in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n intellectual property law {{DEFAULTSORT:Laches (Equity) Equity (law) Equitable defenses Legal doctrines and principles