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TRW Inc. v. Andrews, 534 U.S. 19, 10 (2001)

Legal Research Home > United States Supreme Court > 534 U.S. > TRW Inc. v. Andrews, 534 U.S. 19, 10 (2001)

28

TRW INC. v. ANDREWS

Opinion of the Court

by implication from the structure or text of the particular statute.

The Ninth Circuit thus erred in holding that a generally applied discovery rule controls this case. The FCRA does not govern an area of the law that cries out for application of a discovery rule, nor is the statute "silent on the issue" of when the statute of limitations begins to run. Section 1681p addresses that precise question; the provision reads:

"An action to enforce any liability created under [the Act] may be brought . . . within two years from the date on which the liability arises, except that where a defendant has materially and willfully misrepresented any information required under [the Act] to be disclosed to an individual and the information so misrepresented is material to the establishment of the defendant's liability to that individual under [the Act], the action may be brought at any time within two years after discovery by the individual of the misrepresentation."

We conclude that the text and structure of § 1681p evince Congress' intent to preclude judicial implication of a discovery rule.

"Where Congress explicitly enumerates certain exceptions to a general prohibition, additional exceptions are not to be implied, in the absence of evidence of a contrary legislative intent." Andrus v. Glover Constr. Co., 446 U. S. 608, 616- 617 (1980). Congress provided in the FCRA that the two-year statute of limitations runs from "the date on which the liability arises," subject to a single exception for cases involving a defendant's willful misrepresentation of material information. § 1681p. The most natural reading of § 1681p is that Congress implicitly excluded a general discovery rule by explicitly including a more limited one. See Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U. S. 163, 168 (1993) ("Expressio unius est exclusio alterius."). We would distort § 1681p's text by converting

Last modified: October 4, 2007