Kingvision Pay-Per-View v. 898 Belmont Inc.

• Decision Date: 27 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-1770.,02-1770.
• Citation: 366 F.3d 217
• Parties: KINGVISION PAY-PER-VIEW, CORP., LTD., Appellant v. 898 BELMONT, INC., d/b/a El Toro Bar; Berhanu Degife.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

366 F.3d 217

KINGVISION PAY-PER-VIEW, CORP., LTD., Appellant v. 898 BELMONT, INC., d/b/a El Toro Bar; Berhanu Degife.

No. 02-1770.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued on March 4, 2003.

Filed April 27, 2004.

Francine R. Strauss, (Argued), Potomac, MD, Bradley H. Trushin, Marcus W. Corwin, P.A., Boca Raton, FL, for Appellants.

Donald M. Moser, (Argued), Philadelphia, PA, for Appellees.

Before ROTH, BARRY and FUENTES, Circuit Judges.

ROTH, Circuit Judge.

Once again, we must determine what statute of limitations to apply when a federal statute does not specify a limitations period. In this case, involving the Federal Communications Act (FCA), KingVision claims that defendants exhibited a closed circuit telecast through the use of an illegal decoding device. The District Court applied the two year limitations period of the Pennsylvania cable piracy statute instead of the three year limitations period of the Copyright Act. We hold that the two year state limitations period does apply to KingVision's FCA claims because the Pennsylvania piracy statute is directly analogous to § 553 of the FCA and neither the "practicalities of litigation" nor federal policy or law are frustrated by such application. See North Star Steel Co. v. Thomas, 515 U.S. 29, 34-35, 115 S.Ct. 1927, 132 L.Ed.2d 27 (1995); Reed v. United Transp. Union, 488 U.S. 319, 327, 109 S.Ct. 621, 102 L.Ed.2d 665 (1989). Accordingly, we will affirm the decision of the District Court granting defendants' Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and dismissing all claims against defendants.

I. Facts and Procedural History

Plaintiff KingVision, a licensee of sports programming, sued defendants 898 Belmont, Inc., d/b/a the El Toro Bar, and Berhanu Degife, its owner and operator, in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under 47 U.S.C. §§ 553 (unauthorized reception of cable service) and 605 (unauthorized publication or use of communications), the "piracy statutes" of the FCA, as amended by the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. It is uncontested that on March 13, 1999, without King Vision's authorization, the El Toro Bar intercepted and broadcast the Evander Holyfield/Lennox Lewis championship boxing match and "associated undercard bouts" to its patrons. It is also uncontested that KingVision did not provide defendants with the decoding equipment or the satellite coordinates necessary to receive the signal, nor did KingVision receive a sublicense fee or revenue from El Toro Bar for patron admissions to the broadcast. KingVision wrote to the El Toro Bar about the unauthorized broadcast in April 1999 but failed to bring suit until June 2001. Defendants filed an Answer and a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings on the ground that the Complaint was filed after the expiration of the two year state limitations period applicable to the Pennsylvania cable piracy statute, 18 Pa. Con. Stat. § 910, as specified in 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 5524(7) for actions not otherwise subject to a specific limitations period.

The District Court applied the two year statute of limitations of § 5524(7) and dismissed KingVision's claims as time-barred. Kingvision Pay-Per-View, Ltd. v. 898 Belmont, Inc., 2002 WL 215978 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 13, 2002), 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2275, at *8. On February 24, 2002, KingVision filed a timely Motion for Reconsideration, arguing that the Copyright Act more closely parallels the piracy sections of the FCA, so that the limitations period of the Copyright Act should be applied instead of the state limitations period. KingVision's motion was denied on March 8, 2002, and this appeal followed.

II. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

The District Court had jurisdiction to hear this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, as it is a civil action arising under the laws of the United States. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, because the District Court's February 14, 2002, order is final and appealable.

We review de novo the District Court's dismissal of the case on statute of limitations grounds. See Lake v. Arnold, 232 F.3d 360, 365 (3d Cir.2000)

III. Discussion

Determining the statute of limitations period for activity governed by a federal statute is a question of federal law. Nevertheless, as recognized by the Supreme Court in North Star Steel Co. v. Thomas, 515 U.S. 29, 115 S.Ct. 1927, 132 L.Ed.2d 27 (1995), when a federal statute fails to provide a statute of limitations, a court should look to analogous state statutes. The Court stated, "our practice has left no doubt about the lender of first resort. Since 1830, `state statutes have repeatedly supplied the periods of limitations for federal causes of action' when the federal legislation made no provision." Id. at 34, 115 S.Ct. 1927 (citing Automobile Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U.S. 696, 703-704, 86 S.Ct. 1107, 16 L.Ed.2d 192 (1966)). The rule is that "courts look to the state statute `most closely analogous' to the federal Act in need." Id.; Reed v. United Transp. Union, 488 U.S. 319, 323, 109 S.Ct. 621, 102 L.Ed.2d 665 (1989); DelCostello v. Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 158, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983).¹ The reason for this judicially-created rule is that Congress has an "appropriate" and "realistic" expectation that, given long-standing practice, courts will look to analogous state statutes of limitations for federal laws that do not provide them. North Star, 515 U.S. at 34, 37, 115 S.Ct. 1927 (Scalia, J., concurring). Thus, while courts are not required to choose a state statute of limitations period, they generally choose a state limitations period "as a matter of interstitial fashioning of remedial details under the respective substantive federal statutes." DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 160, 103 S.Ct. 2281.

In North Star, the Supreme Court notes two exceptions to this rule. First, 28 U.S.C. § 1658 provides a general, four-year limitations period for federal statutes passed after December 1, 1990, that do not contain their own limitations period. Id. at 34 n. *, 115 S.Ct. 1927. Section 1658 is not at issue here, however, since the FCA was passed in 1934, and the Cable Communications Policy Act amendments were passed in 1984.

Second, a court may turn to a limitations period provided within an analogous federal statute when the state limitations periods would "`frustrate or interfere with the implementation of national policies'... or be `at odds with the purpose or operation of federal substantive law.'" North Star, 515 U.S. at 34, 115 S.Ct. 1927 (internal citations omitted). This second exception is very narrow; "reference to federal law is the exception, and we decline to follow a state limitations period only when a rule from elsewhere in federal law clearly provides a closer analogy than available state statutes, and when the federal policies at stake and the practicalities of litigation make that rule a significantly more appropriate vehicle for interstitial lawmaking." Id. at 35 (internal quotations omitted).

In other words, if there is a parallel state statute, there is no reason to explore federal law, unless the state limitations period impedes the implementation of national policies, is at odds with the purpose or operation of federal substantive law, or is demanded by the practicalities of litigation. See, e.g., Reed, 488 U.S. at 327, 109 S.Ct. 621 ("In light of the analogy between § 101(a)(2) and personal injury actions, and of the lack of any conflict between the practicalities of § 101(a)(2) litigation and state personal injury limitations periods, we are bound to borrow state personal injury statutes absent some compelling demonstration that `the federal policies at stake' in § 101(a)(2) actions make a federal limitations period `a significantly more appropriate vehicle for interstitial lawmaking.'") (quoting DelCostello, 462 U.S. at 172, 103 S.Ct. 2281). However, as the Court explained in DelCostello:

In some circumstances ... state statutes of limitations can be unsatisfactory vehicles for the enforcement of federal law. In those instances, it may be inappropriate to conclude that Congress would choose to adopt state rules at odds with the purpose or operation of federal substantive law.

462 U.S. at 161, 103 S.Ct. 2281 (emphasis added).

As we see then, under North Star, Reed, and DelCostello, if there is an analogous state limitations period, absent any impediment of implementation of national policies if that state period is applied, courts are not required to examine federal limitations periods.

Following the standard established in DelCostello, the Supreme Court has applied state limitations periods to a variety of claims, including claims under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), see North Star, 515 U.S. at 33-37, 115 S.Ct. 1927; the Labor-Management and Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), see Reed, 488 U.S. at 323-34, 109 S.Ct. 621; and § 1983, see Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-80, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985). DelCostello itself, however, is an example of the type of action in which a federal limitations period is called for. There, the Court applied a federal limitations period to a hybrid § 301/fair representation claim arising under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), 462 U.S. at 151, 158-72, 103 S.Ct. 2281. Again, in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claim, the Court applied a federal limitations period in Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Assocs., Inc., 483 U.S. 143, 107 S.Ct. 2759, 97 L.Ed.2d 121 (1987).

Our review of DelCostello and Malley-Duff demonstrates that the Supreme Court examines statute of limitations queries based on the type of claim presented rather than on a case-by-case basis. NLRA and RICO cases are two categories of the types of federal statutes excepted from the general application of state limitations periods. The justification for applying the exception in the DelCostello 301/fair...