§ 140A.105.Limitations Period

A limitations period keyed to discovery, and an unusually long one.

A proceeding may be commenced only if filed on or before the seventh anniversary of the date on which the racketeering offense was "actually discovered". The section supersedes any conflicting provision establishing a shorter period of limitations for the same conduct.

"Actually discovered" is more generous than the usual discovery formula. The limitations chapter’s discovery rule runs from when a claimant knew or by reasonable diligence should have known; this runs from actual discovery alone.

So constructive knowledge does not start the clock, and a defendant cannot argue the state should have found the operation sooner.

Both features suit the subject. Trafficking operations are concealed, victims are frequently unable or afraid to report, and an operation can run for years before any authority learns of it.

Seven years is long by the standards of this code — against two years for most torts and four for the residual period.

The supersession clause is what makes it effective. The underlying conduct also constitutes other torts with shorter periods, and without this a defendant could argue the shorter one governs. The section forecloses that for the same conduct.

Note that it supersedes only shorter periods. A longer one elsewhere is untouched — the sexual offences provision in the limitations chapter gives thirty years for trafficking conduct against a child, and nothing here cuts that down.