34
Opinion of the Court
446, 449 (CA5 1988) ("The requirement that a consumer sustain some injury in order to establish a cause of action suggests that the statute should be triggered when the agency issues an erroneous report to an institution with which the consumer is dealing.").
Accordingly, Andrews asserts, her claims are timely: The disputed "liability" for actual damages did not "arise" until May 1995, when she suffered the emotional distress, missed opportunities, and inconvenience cataloged in her complaint; prior to that time, "she had no FCRA claim to bring," Brief for Respondent 24 (emphasis deleted). Cf. Bay Area Laundry and Dry Cleaning Pension Trust Fund v. Ferbar Corp. of Cal., 522 U. S. 192, 200-201 (1997) (rejecting construction of statute under which limitations period would begin running before cause of action existed in favor of "standard rule" that the period does not commence earlier than the date "the plaintiff can file suit and obtain relief").6
We do not reach this issue because it was not raised or briefed below. See Reply Brief for Petitioner 18-19. We note, however, that the Ninth Circuit has not embraced Andrews' alternative argument, see 225 F. 3d, at 1066 ("Liabil-6 The opinion concurring in the judgment rips Bay Area Laundry and Dry Cleaning Pension Trust Fund v. Ferbar Corp. of Cal., 522 U. S. 192, 201 (1997), from its berth, see post, at 36, 38; we here set the record straight. The question presented in Bay Area Laundry was whether a statute of limitations could commence to run on one day while the right to sue ripened on a later day. We answered that question, and only that question, "no," unless the statute indicates otherwise. See 522 U. S., at 200-201. Continuing on beyond the place where the concurrence in the judgment leaves off, we clarified: "Unless Congress has told us otherwise in the legislation at issue, a cause of action does not become 'complete and present' for limitations purposes until the plaintiff can file suit and obtain relief. See Reiter v. Cooper, 507 U. S. 258, 267 (1993) ("While it is theoretically possible for a statute to create a cause of action that accrues at one time for the purpose of calculating when the statute of limitations begins to run, but at another time for the purpose of bringing suit, we will not infer such an odd result in the absence of any such indication in the statute.")." Id., at 201.
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