Background
In July 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an interim final rule requiring state plans to adjust monetary penalties to match federal inflation adjustments. South Carolina failed to increase its penalties, placing it out of compliance. OSHA flagged this issue in annual monitoring reports and issued a formal finding of noncompliance in 2022. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and the state Department of Labor sued in 2023, challenging the 2016 rule under the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing they were not injured until the 2022 finding.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the six-year statute of limitations under 28 United States Code Section 2401, subsection A. It determined that a claim accrues when the plaintiff is injured by final agency action. The court found that the Plaintiffs were injured when the rule was promulgated in 2016, as they could have brought a pre-enforcement challenge at that time. The court rejected the argument that a later credible threat of enforcement in 2022 created a new cause of action. The court noted that Plaintiffs acknowledged at oral argument that the credible threat arose from the rule’s publication in 2016.
A claim accrues when the plaintiff has the right to assert it in court—and in the case of the APA, that is when the plaintiff is injured by final agency action.
Corner Post, Inc. v. Bd. of Governors of Fed. Rsrv. Sys., 603 U.S. 799, 804 (2024)
What it means going forward
State plans challenging federal safety regulations must file pre-enforcement suits within six years of the rule’s publication. Regulated parties may still challenge the validity of such rules as a defense in future enforcement proceedings.