Cite as: 517 U. S. 654 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
II
The United States first suggests that Rule 4's extendable 120-day time prescription, and the Suits in Admiralty Act's service "forthwith" instruction, can and should be read harmoniously. The Rule 4 time limit for service, Rule 4( j) at the time Henderson's action commenced,9 provided:
"( j) Summons: Time Limit for Service. If a service of the summons and complaint is not made upon a defendant within 120 days after the filing of the complaint and the party on whose behalf such service was required cannot show good cause why such service was not made within that period, the action shall be dismissed as to that defendant . . . ." Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 4( j) (1988).
Section 2 of the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U. S. C. App. § 742, prescribes service "forthwith," see supra, at 659, a word not precisely defined in the Act or in case law, but indicative of a time far shorter than 120 days. The apparent conflict dissolves, the Government urges, if one reads Rule 4 as establishing not "an affirmative right to serve [a] complaint" within 120 days, but only an outer boundary for timely service. See Brief for United States 14, 18, 26; Tr. of Oral Arg. 28, 30.
We reject the Government's view of the time the Federal Rules authorize for service. Reading Rule 4 in its historical context, we conclude that the 120-day provision operates not as an outer limit subject to reduction, but as an irreducible allowance. Prior to 1983, Rule 4 contained no time limit for service. Until the changes installed that year,
v. United States, 303 F. 2d 683, 685-686 (CA2), cert. dism'd, 371 U. S. 907 (1962), with Jones & Laughlin Steel, Inc. v. Mon River Towing, Inc., 772 F. 2d 62, 66 (CA3 1985). See also Kenyon, 676 F. 2d, at 1231-1232 (Boochever, J., concurring); Battaglia, 303 F. 2d, at 686-687 (Friendly, J., concurring).
9 Currently, Rule 4(m) states the time limit for service. See supra, at 658, n. 5.
661
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007