Minnesota Statute of Limitations: Filing Deadlines by Case Type

(a) Indictments or complaints for any crime resulting in the death of the victim may be found or made at any time after the death of the person killed. (b) Indictments or complaints for a violation of section 609.25 may be found or made at any time after the commission of the offense. (c) Indictments or complaints for violation of section 609.282 may be found or made at any time after the commission of the offense if the victim was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense. (d) Indictments or complaints for violation of section 609.282 where the victim was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense, or 609.42, subdivision 1, clause (1) or (2), shall be found or made and filed in the proper court within six years after the commission of the offense. (e) Indictments or complaints for violation of sections 609.322, 609.342 to 609.345, and 609.3458 may be found or made at any time after the commission of the offense. (f) Indictments or complaints for a violation of section 609.561 shall be found or made and filed in the proper court within ten years after the commission of the offense.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Except where the Uniform Commercial Code, this section, section 541.05, 541.073, 541.076, or 604.205 otherwise prescribes, the following actions shall be commenced within two years: (1) for libel, slander, assault, battery, false imprisonment, or other tort resulting in personal injury, and all actions against veterinarians as defined in chapter 156, for malpractice, error, mistake, or failure to cure, whether based on contract or tort; provided a counterclaim may be pleaded as a defense to any action for services brought by a veterinarian after the limitations period if it was the property of the party pleading it at the time it became barred and was not barred at the time the claim sued on originated, but no judgment thereof except for costs can be rendered in favor of the party so pleading it; (2) upon a statute for a penalty or forfeiture, except as provided in sections 541.074 and 541.075; (3) for damages caused by a dam, other than a dam used for commercial purposes; but as against one holding under the preemption or homestead laws, the limitations shall not begin to run until a patent has been issued for the land so damaged; (4) against a master for breach of an indenture…

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Also relied on in: Minnesota Defamation Laws: Libel & Slander (2026), Defamation Laws by State: Libel and Slander (2026), Minnesota Final Paycheck Laws: The Demand-Triggered 24-Hour Rule

Subdivision 1. Six-year limitation. Except where the Uniform Commercial Code otherwise prescribes, the following actions shall be commenced within six years: (1) upon a contract or other obligation, express or implied, as to which no other limitation is expressly prescribed; (2) 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; (3) for a trespass upon real estate; (4) for taking, detaining, or injuring personal property, including actions for the specific recovery thereof; (5) for criminal conversation, or for any other injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract, and not hereinafter enumerated; (6) 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; (7) against sureties upon the official bond of any public officer, whether of the state or of any county, town, school district, or a municipality therein; in which case the limitation shall not begin to run until the term of such officer for which the bond was given shall have…

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Also relied on in: Minnesota Dog Bite Laws: Liability and Victim Rights, Minnesota Car Accident Laws: No-Fault, PIP, and Your Claim, Minnesota Motorcycle Accident Laws (2026): Deadlines

(a) For purposes of this section, "health care provider" means a physician, surgeon, dentist, occupational therapist, other health care professionals as defined in section 145.61, hospital, or treatment facility. (b) An action by a patient or former patient against a health care provider alleging malpractice, error, mistake, or failure to cure, whether based on a contract or tort, must be commenced within four years from the date the cause of action accrued. (c) A counterclaim may be pleaded as a defense to any action for services brought by a health care provider after the limitations described in this section, notwithstanding it is barred by the provisions of this chapter, if the counterclaim belonged to the party pleading it at the time it became barred and was not barred at the time the claim sued on originated, but no judgment on the counterclaim except for costs can be rendered in favor of the party so pleading it.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Also relied on in: Medical Malpractice Laws in Minnesota (2026): Deadlines & Caps, Minnesota Wrongful Death Laws (2026): Deadlines

Subdivision 1. Definition. As used in this section: (1) "sexual abuse" means conduct described in sections 609.342 to 609.3451 and 609.3458; and (2) "person" includes a natural person, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, organization, association, or other entity. Subd. 2. Limitations period. (a) An action for damages based on sexual abuse: (1) must be commenced within six years of the alleged sexual abuse in the case of alleged sexual abuse of an individual 18 years or older; (2) may be commenced at any time in the case of alleged sexual abuse of an individual under the age of 18, except as provided for in subdivision 4; and (3) must be commenced before the plaintiff is 24 years of age in a claim against a natural person alleged to have sexually abused a minor when that natural person was under 14 years of age. (b) The plaintiff need not establish which act in a continuous series of sexual abuse acts by the defendant caused the injury. (c) This section does not affect the suspension of the statute of limitations during a period of disability under section 541.15. Subd. 3. Applicability.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Subdivision 1. Limitation; service or construction of real property; improvements. (a) Except where fraud is involved, no action by any person in contract, tort, or otherwise to recover damages for any injury to property, real or personal, or for bodily injury or wrongful death, arising out of the defective and unsafe condition of an improvement to real property, shall be brought against any person performing or furnishing the design, planning, supervision, materials, or observation of construction or construction of the improvement to real property or against the owner of the real property more than two years after the cause of action accrues, as specified in paragraph (c), nor in any event shall such a cause of action accrue more than ten years after substantial completion of the construction. Date of substantial completion shall be determined by the date when construction is sufficiently completed so that the owner or the owner's representative can occupy or use the improvement for the intended purpose.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

No action shall be maintained upon a judgment or decree of a court of the United States, or of any state or territory thereof, unless begun within ten years after the entry of such judgment.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), any of the following grounds of disability, existing at the time when a cause of action accrued or arising anytime during the period of limitation, shall suspend the running of the period of limitation until the same is removed; provided that such period, except in the case of infancy, shall not be extended for more than five years, nor in any case for more than one year after the disability ceases: (1) that the plaintiff is within the age of 18 years; (2) the plaintiff's insanity; (3) is an alien and the subject or citizen of a country at war with the United States; (4) when the beginning of the action is stayed by injunction or by statutory prohibition. If two or more disabilities shall coexist, the suspension shall continue until all are removed. (b) In actions alleging malpractice, error, mistake, or failure to cure, whether based on contract or tort, against a health care provider, the ground of disability specified in paragraph (a), clause (1), suspends the period of limitation until the disability is removed. The suspension may not be extended for more than seven years, or for more than one year after the disability ceases.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Subdivision 1. Death action. When death is caused by the wrongful act or omission of any person or corporation, the trustee appointed as provided in subdivision 3 may maintain an action therefor if the decedent might have maintained an action, had the decedent lived, for an injury caused by the wrongful act or omission. An action to recover damages for a death caused by the alleged professional negligence of a physician, surgeon, dentist, hospital or sanitarium, or an employee of a physician, surgeon, dentist, hospital or sanitarium shall be commenced within three years of the date of death, but in no event shall be commenced beyond the time set forth in section 541.076. An action to recover damages for a death caused by an intentional act constituting murder may be commenced at any time after the death of the decedent. Any other action under this section may be commenced within three years after the date of death provided that the action must be commenced within six years after the act or omission.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-09-06 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Also relied on in: Truck Accident Laws in Minnesota (2026): Deadlines & Liability

The time within which the following acts shall be performed shall be limited to the following periods, respectively: (a) Actions or proceedings by an injured employee to determine or recover compensation, three years after a written report of the injury has been made to the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, but not to exceed six years from the date of the accident. (b) Actions or proceedings by dependents to determine or recover compensation, three years after the receipt by the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry of written notice of death, given by the employer, but not to exceed six years from the date of injury, provided, however, if the employee was paid compensation for the injury from which the death resulted, such actions or proceedings by dependents must be commenced within three years after the receipt by the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry of written notice of death, given by the employer, but not to exceed six years from the date of death.

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

(1) An action for breach of any contract for sale must be commenced within four years after the cause of action has accrued. By the original agreement the parties may reduce the period of limitation to not less than one year but may not extend it.(2) A cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the aggrieved party's lack of knowledge of the breach. A breach of warranty occurs when tender of delivery is made, except that where a warranty explicitly extends to future performance of the goods and discovery of the breach must await the time of such performance the cause of action accrues when the breach is or should have been discovered.(3) Where an action commenced within the time limited by subsection (1) is so terminated as to leave available a remedy by another action for the same breach such other action may be commenced after the expiration of the time limited and within six months after the termination of the first action unless the termination resulted from voluntary discontinuance or from dismissal for failure or neglect to prosecute.(4) This section does not alter the law on tolling of the statute of limitations, nor does it apply to causes of action which…

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov

Subdivision 1. Adult victim; crime defined. A person who engages in sexual penetration with another person is guilty of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree if any of the following circumstances exists: (a) circumstances existing at the time of the act cause the complainant to have a reasonable fear of imminent great bodily harm to the complainant or another; (b) the actor is armed with a dangerous weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the complainant to reasonably believe it to be a dangerous weapon and uses or threatens to use the weapon or article to cause the complainant to submit; (c) the actor causes personal injury to the complainant, and any of the following circumstances exist: (i) the actor uses coercion to accomplish the act; (ii) the actor uses force, as defined in section 609.341, subdivision 3, clause (2); or (iii) the actor knows or has reason to know that the complainant is mentally impaired, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless; (d) the actor uses force as defined in section 609.341, subdivision 3, clause (1); or (e) the actor is aided or abetted by one or more accomplices within the meaning of section 609.05, and either of…

Official text (excerpt) · last checked 2026-07-29 · Read the full text in our law library · Verify at revisor.mn.gov