§ 140B.113.Limitations; Tolling

A limitations rule with two components, and the tolling half is narrower than the first.

Subsection (a): notwithstanding any other law, the attorney general or a local prosecutor must bring an action not later than the fifth anniversary of the later of — the date the conduct that is the basis for the action terminates, or the date the cause of action accrues.

Measuring from termination is what suits a racketeering claim. The predicate offenses require a pattern, and a pattern continues; a period running from the first incident could expire while the enterprise was still operating.

"The later of" makes the two limbs a floor rather than alternatives, and the notwithstanding clause overrides any shorter period elsewhere.

Subsection (b) suspends the clock in two situations: where an indictment for an offense under Section 72.02, 72.03, or 72.04, Penal Code, is presented, or where a civil action is brought, or intervened in, to punish, prevent, or restrain such conduct.

The period is then suspended during the pendency of the prosecution or litigation and extended for two years following its termination.

The limit to notice is the crucial qualifier: tolling reaches only a cause of action arising under Section 140B.109 — the attorney general’s penalty action — and only one wholly or partly based on a matter complained of in the indictment or the pleadings.

So the forfeiture and civil remedies actions are not tolled. An agency that waits for a criminal case to conclude before seeking forfeiture may find the five years gone, which is a reason to file and abate rather than hold back.

The two extra years exist to make the suspension usable, since a case resuming the day a prosecution ends would otherwise face whatever fragment of the period remained.