Cite as: 521 U. S. 179 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
Not until 1991, say the Klehrs, did they become sufficiently suspicious to investigate the silo, at which time, by opening the silo wall and chopping through the feed with an ice chisel, they discovered " 'mold hanging all over the silage.' " Brief for Petitioners 16.
The District Court, after examining the Klehrs' evidence, found their lawsuit untimely. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal, and said that a civil RICO action accrues
" 'as soon as the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, both the existence and source of his injury and that the injury is part of a pattern.' " 87 F. 3d 231, 238 (1996) (quoting Association of Commonwealth Claimants v. Moylan, 71 F. 3d 1398, 1402 (CA8 1995)).
After examining the Klehrs' evidence de novo, the Circuit held that they failed to satisfy the standard. It said they had suffered "one single, continuous injury . . . sometime in the 1970s"; and that they should have discovered "the existence and source of [their] injury," as well as any related "pattern," well before August 1989. 87 F. 3d, at 239. The Circuit refused to find "fraudulent concealment" because, among other things, the Klehrs had not been sufficiently "diligen[t]." Id., at 238, 239, n. 11.
We granted certiorari in this case to consider the Klehrs' claim in light of a split of authority among the Courts of Appeals. Two other Circuits, like the Eighth Circuit here, have applied forms of an "injury and pattern discovery" civil RICO accrual rule. Bivens Gardens Office Building, Inc. v. Barnett Bank, 906 F. 2d 1546, 1554-1555 (CA11 1990), cert. denied, 500 U. S. 910 (1991); Bath v. Bushkin, Gaims, Gaines & Jonas, 913 F. 2d 817, 820 (CA10 1990). Other Circuits have applied forms of an "injury discovery" rule, i. e., without the "pattern." See Grimmett v. Brown, 75 F. 3d 506, 511 (CA9 1996), cert. dism'd as improvidently granted, 519 U. S. 233 (1997); McCool v. Strata Oil Co., 972 F. 2d 1452, 1464-1465 (CA7 1992); Rodriguez v. Banco Central Corp., 917
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