ISLAND INSTEEL SYSTEMS, INC.; ISLAND INSTEEL CONSTRUCTION, INC.; PETER W. CLARK; THE PETER W. CLARK FAMILY TRUST; ALAN R. FEUERSTEIN, Appellants v. DARRIN WATERS; TAMMY WATERS; TAMMY MOST; PANELS, INC.; CONCRETE PANELS CONSTRUCTION, INC.; POOL VILLAS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, AN UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATION UNDER THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS; UNKNOWN DEFENDANTS A THROUGH Z
No. 00-2713
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
July 17, 2002
JAMES M. DERR, ESQ. (Argued), St. Thomas, V.I., DANIELLE C. COMEAUX, Esq., Hodge & Francois, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, Counsel for Appellees
BECKER, Chief Judge, NYGAARD and COWEN, Circuit Judges
OPINION OF THE COURT
In this Lanham Act trademark infringement action, plaintiffs appeal from an order of the District Court of the Virgin Islands granting defendants’ motion to dismiss under
Because plaintiffs have failed to identify a specific statutory cause of action under Virgin Islands law that is analogous to their Lanham Act claim and is subject to the catch-all six-year limitations period for actions upon a liability created by a statute that lacks a statute of limitations, we decline to apply the six-year statute of limitations. That conclusion relegates us to a choice between an action for fraud and an action for deceptive trade practices, both subject to a two-year statute of limitations under Virgin Islands law. But we still must decide which cause of action more closely resembles plaintiffs’ claims since the statute of limitations for fraud begins running on the date plaintiffs discovered the fraud, whereas the statute of limitations for deceptive trade practices begins running on the date the actionable conduct occurred.
We hold that the cause of action under Virgin Islands law most analogous to a claim for trademark infringement under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act is the cause of action for deceptive trade practices in violation of
While plaintiffs concede that the allegedly unlawful conduct occurred more than two years before the date they filed this suit, invoking the doctrine of equitable tolling, they submit that even under this statute of limitations their suit is not time-barred since they filed an identical action in the District of Puerto Rico within the two-year limitations period. That suit was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. Defendants respond that because the first action was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, the District Court properly held that the filing of that action did not equitably toll the statute of limitations. Whether filing suit in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction over a defendant may equitably toll the statute of limitations presents us with a question of first impression under Virgin Islands law. Because: (1) there is no statute on point; (2) the American Law Institute Restatements of the Law are silent on the issue, see
We hold that under Virgin Islands law, the statute of limitations for a second action may be equitably tolled by the filing of an earlier action dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction if: (1) the first action gave the defendant timely notice of plaintiff‘s claim; (2) the lapse of time between the first and second actions will not prejudice the defendant; and (3) the plaintiff prosecuted the first action in good faith and diligently filed the second action. This doctrine of equitable tolling preserves the protections that statutes of limitations are intended to afford to defendants. At the same time, it avoids the unfairness to plaintiffs that would occur if plaintiffs who diligently but mistakenly prosecute their claims in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction find their claims time-barred when they refile in a proper jurisdiction.
Application of this equitable tolling doctrine, like most equitable doctrines, is committed to the discretion of the district court in the first instance. Moreover, how the issue should be resolved in this case is far from clear. Therefore, we will vacate the order of the District Court and
I.
Plaintiffs are Island Insteel Systems, Inc., Island Insteel Construction, Inc., and individual shareholders of those corporations, who allege that defendants unlawfully used the “Insteel” trade name. The defendants are Panels, Inc., Concrete Panels Construction, Inc., and their individual officers and shareholders, who were also officers and shareholders of the plaintiff corporations. In May 1994, the individual plaintiffs and individual defendants, then in business together, formed the plaintiff corporations to market in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Caribbean the “Insteel” panel system of building construction distributed by Insteel Construction Systems, Inc., of Brunswick, Georgia (“Insteel Georgia“), which is not a party to this suit.
In September of 1995, Hurricane Marilyn devastated the Virgin Islands, causing severe property destruction. Homes constructed using the “Insteel” panel system, however, withstood the hurricane with little damage. Due to the “Insteel” buildings’ survival of the hurricane, the plaintiff corporations were able to secure more than $ 500,000 worth of building contracts in St. Thomas and elsewhere. Plaintiffs were unable to begin work on these contracts until they obtained approval of their construction system under the new building code adopted by the U.S. Virgin Islands in response to the severity of damage caused by the hurricane. The delay in plaintiffs’ construction pending their approval caused a backlog of construction work, so that by early 1996, the plaintiff corporations’ work calendars were completely full.
Plaintiffs allege that in January 1996, the individual defendants formed the defendant corporations, and, unbeknownst to plaintiffs, began to use the Insteel trade name to promote the business of the defendant corporations. On November 17, 1997, having learned of this usage, plaintiffs filed a complaint against defendants in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico alleging that defendants’ unauthorized use of the Insteel trade name violated § 43(a) of the Lanham Act. In an order docketed on October 30, 1998, that court dismissed the complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction. On January 28, 1999, plaintiffs refiled their action in the District Court of the Virgin Islands.
II.
We must first determine the statute of limitations for trademark infringement claims under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act,
Under the trademark infringement prong of § 43(a):
Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which ... is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person ... shall be liable in a
civil action by any person who believes that he or she is or is likely to be damaged by such act.
A.
Because the Lanham Act does not contain an express statute of limitations, we follow the traditional practice of borrowing the most analogous statute of limitations from state law. See Beauty Time, Inc. v. VU Skin Sys., Inc., 118 F.3d 140, 143 (3d Cir. 1997) (“The Lanham Act contains no express statute of limitations and the general rule is that when a federal statute provides no limitations for suits, the court must look to the state statute of limitations for analogous types of actions.“). See generally Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-67, 85 L. Ed. 2d 254, 105 S. Ct. 1938 (1985) (“When Congress has not established a time limitation for a federal cause of action, the settled practice has been to adopt a local time limitation as federal law if it is not inconsistent with federal law or policy to do so.“).
This “implied absorption of State statutes of limitation within the interstices of ... federal enactments is a phase of fashioning remedial details where Congress has not spoken but left matters for judicial determination ....” Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U.S. 392, 395, 90 L. Ed. 743, 66 S. Ct. 582 (1946). “By adopting the statute governing an analogous cause of action under state law, federal law incorporates the State‘s judgment on the proper balance between the policies of repose and the substantive policies of enforcement embodied in the state cause of action.” Wilson, 471 U.S. at 271.
To be sure, it is inappropriate to “mechanically apply a state statute of limitations simply because a limitations period is absent from the federal statute.” Occidental Life Ins. Co. v. EEOC, 432 U.S. 355, 367, 53 L. Ed. 2d 402, 97 S. Ct. 2447 (1977). In rare cases, the Supreme Court has held that the absence of an express limitations period may indicate a Congressional intent to impose no time limitation at all upon a federal
In this case, however, neither party argues that borrowing the most analogous statute of limitations from state law would frustrate the achievement of federal policies, and we can see no reason for departing from the traditional practice of turning to state law as the “primary guide” in this area. See Agency Holding Corp., 483 U.S. at 147 (“Given our longstanding practice of borrowing state law, and the congressional awareness of this practice, we can generally assume that Congress intends by its silence that we borrow state law.“). We must therefore determine which cause of action under Virgin Islands law is most analogous to a trademark infringement action under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act, and borrow the corresponding statute of limitations.
B.
Plaintiffs argue that the most analogous statute of limitations under Virgin Islands law is the catch-all six-year period for “an action upon a liability created by statute” that does not fall within any of the specifically enumerated limitations periods.
In defendants’ view, this question is controlled by our decision in Beauty Time, Inc. v. VU Skin Sys., Inc., 118 F.3d 140 (3d Cir. 1997), which applied Pennsylvania‘s two-year statute of limitations for fraud to plaintiff‘s claim under § 38 of the Lanham Act,
We believe that the Virgin Islands statute of limitations for fraud and the Virgin Islands statute of limitations for deceptive trade practices govern actions that are more analogous to plaintiffs’ claims than the Virgin Islands catch-all statute of limitations for “a liability created by statute.” The problem that we see with plaintiffs’ argument in favor of applying the limitations period for “liabilities created by statute” is that it focuses on the source of law to the exclusion of the substance of the cause of action. That is, the statute of limitations period that plaintiffs
The six-year statute of limitations could apply if plaintiffs identified a particular cause of action under Virgin Islands law governed by that limitations period. Plaintiffs, however, have failed to identify with particularity an analogous “liability created by statute” under Virgin Islands law that would justify applying the six-year residual statute of limitations. To be sure, neither a cause of action for fraud nor a cause of action for deceptive trade practices supplies a perfect analogue to § 43(a). For example, under both common law fraud and the Virgin
Because both common law fraud and the Virgin Islands deceptive trade practices statute generally impose liability on sellers who misrepresent the source of their goods in a manner that misleads consumers and harms competitors, causes of action for fraud and violations of the deceptive trade practices statute bear substantial similarities, in both their elements and underlying purpose, to a cause of action for trademark infringement under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act. See Kason Indus., Inc. v. Component Hardware Group, Inc., 120 F.3d 1199, 1203 (11th Cir. 1997) (“It should be apparent that § 43(a) of the Lanham Act and § 10-1-372(a)(2) of the [Georgia Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act] provide analogous causes of action. ...“); Conopco, Inc. v. Campbell Soup Co., 95 F.3d 187, 191 (2d Cir. 1996) (“As the language of the Act makes clear, there is an intimate relationship between fraud and injury under the Lanham Act.“).
We therefore conclude that causes of action for fraud and deceptive trade practices are more analogous to a § 43(a) cause of action for trademark infringement than is “an action upon a liability created by statute,”
C.
Plaintiffs contend that even under a two-year statute of limitations period, their claims are viable because their discovery of defendants’ allegedly actionable conduct occurred within two years before the filing of this suit. Whether the limitations period begins running from the date that plaintiffs discovered the actionable conduct, as would be the case under a “discovery rule,” or whether the limitations period begins running from the date the actionable conduct occurred, depends on the state law governing the most analogous cause of action. See Beauty Time, Inc. v. VU Skin Sys., Inc., 118 F.3d 140, 144 (3d Cir. 1997) (“Because we look to state law for the appropriate statute of limitations, we also look to Pennsylvania law on the closely related questions of tolling and application.“).4
Under Virgin Islands law, the statute of limitations for fraud begins running at the time the plaintiff discovered the fraud, whereas the statute of limitations for deceptive trade practices begins running from the date the defendant committed the unlawful conduct. Compare
The courts addressing the question are divided on whether common law fraud claims or claims under state unfair business practices statutes are more analogous to Lanham Act claims for trademark infringement. Compare Lyons P‘ship, L.P. v. Morris Costumes, Inc., 243 F.3d 789, 796-97 (4th Cir. 2001) (applying the statute of limitations for the North Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act,
used in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, or any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which ... is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person, or as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of his or her goods, services, or commercial activities by another person ... .
The RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS defines the elements of common law fraudulent misrepresentation as follows:
One who fraudulently makes a misrepresentation of fact ... for the purpose of inducing another to act or to refrain from action in reliance upon it, is subject to liability to the other in deceit for pecuniary loss caused to him by his justifiable reliance upon the misrepresentation.
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS § 525;6 see also Smith v. Commercial Banking Corp., 866 F.2d 576, 583 (3d Cir. 1989) (“The elements of common law fraud ... require that a party make a material misrepresentation that another reasonably relies upon to his or her detriment.“). Common law fraud also includes a scienter element:
A misrepresentation is fraudulent if the maker
(a) knows or believes that the matter is not as he represents it to be,
(b) does not have the confidence in the accuracy of his representation that he states or implies, or
(c) knows that he does not have the basis for his representation that he states or implies.
RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS § 526.
Under the Virgin Islands deceptive trade practices law, “no person shall engage in any deceptive or unconscionable trade practice in the sale ... of any consumer goods or services ....”
The most salient difference between § 101 of the Virgin Islands deceptive trade practices law and trademark infringement under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act is that whereas § 43(a) applies to “uses in commerce” of infringing marks “in connection with any goods or services,”
Although the scope of transactions covered by the Virgin Islands prohibition against deceptive trade practices is more limited than the scope of transactions covered by common law fraud and the Lanham Act, we believe that the differences between the elements of common law fraud and trademark infringement under § 43(a) are significant. In particular, the scienter requirement for common law fraud is absent from
Common law fraud further differs from trademark infringement under § 43(a) and the deceptive trade practices prohibited by Virgin Islands statute in that common law fraud requires actual reliance on the defendant‘s misrepresentation, whereas § 43(a) simply requires a designation that is “likely to cause confusion,” and a deceptive trade practice simply requires a representation that has the “tendency or effect of deceiving or misleading.”
Finally, the statutory definition of “deceptive trade practices” specifically includes “representations ... that the supplier has a sponsorship, approval, status, [or] affiliation,” which have the “tendency ... of misleading consumers.”
Thus, although the Virgin Islands deceptive trade practices statute applies to a narrower range of transactions than common law fraud, within the range of covered transactions the conduct that renders a seller liable under the Virgin Islands deceptive trade practices statute bears a
We therefore hold that the cause of action under Virgin Islands law most analogous to a trademark infringement claim under § 43(a) of the Lanham Act, for purposes of borrowing a statute of limitations, is a cause of action under
Plaintiffs argue that their filing of a similar action in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico within the two-year limitations period equitably tolled the statute of limitations. Defendants respond that the doctrine of equitable tolling is inapplicable because plaintiffs’ Puerto Rico suit was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. According to defendants, the filing of a lawsuit in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants does not toll the running of the limitations period.
There appears to be no binding case law on the question whether, under Virgin Islands law, a lawsuit filed in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants may equitably toll the statute of limitations. In such a case, we are instructed by
The rules of the common law, as expressed in the restatements of the law approved by the American Law Institute, and to the extent not so expressed, as generally understood and applied in the United States, shall be the rules of decision in the courts of the Virgin Islands in cases to which they apply, in the absence of local laws to the contrary.
But there is neither a Virgin Islands statute nor a Restatement rule deciding the question of equitable tolling in this case, and hence we must look to the common law “as generally understood and applied in the United States.” See Abdallah v. Callender, 28 V.I. 416, 1 F.3d 141, 147 (3d Cir. 1993) (“The common law as generally understood and applied in the United States applies in the Virgin Islands absent a statute or Restatement rule to the contrary ....“).
Because many states have “savings statutes,” under which the filing of an action later dismissed for reasons unrelated to the merits tolls the statute of limitations, there are few decisions addressing this question as a matter of common law. See Hosogai v. Kadota, 145 Ariz. 227, 700 P.2d 1327, 1334 (Ariz. 1985) (“[A] clear majority of the states—thirty-one—presently have general savings statutes in civil actions.“); 4 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 1056 at 273 n.44 (3d ed. 2002) (noting that over half the states have savings statutes of some kind).
As there is no majority common law rule governing this question, we must therefore select the more appropriate rule as a matter of policy. See Polius v. Clark Equip. Co., 802 F.2d 75, 77 (3d Cir. 1986) (“Where the Restatement is silent and a split of authority exists, courts should select the sounder rule” in resolving questions of Virgin Islands law.). In choosing the better rule, we are guided by the policy rationale underlying statutes of limitations generally:
Statutes of limitations are primarily designed to assure fairness to defendants. Such statutes promote justice by preventing surprises through the revival of claims that have been allowed to slumber until evidence has been lost, memories have faded, and witnesses have disappeared. The theory is that even if one has a just claim it is unjust not to put the adversary on notice to defend within the period of limitation and that the right to be free of stale claims in time comes to prevail over the right to prosecute them. Moreover, the courts ought to be relieved of the burden of trying stale claims when a plaintiff has slept on his rights.
Burnett v. N.Y. Cent. R.R. Co., 380 U.S. 424, 428, 13 L. Ed. 2d 941, 85 S. Ct. 1050, 5 Ohio Misc. 197, 33 Ohio Op. 2d 256 (1965) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
They are first a practical and pragmatic device to spare the courts from litigation of stale claims, and the citizen from being put to his defense after memories have faded, witnesses have died or disappeared, and evidence has been lost. ... Secondly, limitations periods are intended to put defendants on notice of adverse claims. Finally, limitations periods prevent plaintiffs from sleeping on their rights.
Id. at 471-72 (internal quotation marks, citations, and alterations omitted).
Defendants rely on our decision in Young v. Clantech, Inc., 863 F.2d 300 (3d Cir. 1988) (per curiam), which held that under New Jersey law, a lawsuit filed in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendant cannot equitably toll the statute of limitations. Young, however, is not controlling here, since we must look to Virgin Islands law, not New Jersey law, to determine whether filing suit in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction may equitably toll the statute of limitations. See Beauty Time, Inc. v. VU Skin Sys., Inc., 118 F.3d 140, 144 (3d Cir. 1997) (“Because we look to state law for the appropriate statute of limitations, we also look to Pennsylvania law on the closely related questions of tolling and application.“). Nor do we find Young persuasive on the question whether the sounder rule as a matter of policy permits the filing of a first action in a court that lacks personal jurisdiction to toll the statute of limitations for purposes of a second action. Young gave only cursory treatment to the policy questions implicated by its holding, and rested its prediction of how the New Jersey Supreme Court would decide the question of New Jersey law primarily on the New Jersey Supreme Court‘s case law in this area. See Young, 863 F.2d at 301 (“Traditionally, the filing of a case against a defendant in a court which did not have jurisdiction over the action tolled New Jersey‘s statute of limitations only if the court in which the case was originally filed had authority to transfer the case to the proper court.“) (citing Kaczmarek v. N.J. Turnpike Auth., 77 N.J. 329, 390 A.2d 597 (N.J. 1978)). Whereas in Young we were writing against a backdrop of New Jersey Supreme Court precedent, in this case we write on a clean slate, as there is no relevant binding authority on this point of Virgin Islands law.
Although the [Young] court suggested that significant policy arguments support a distinction between the two types of defects, it did not spell them out. We do not perceive any. Indeed, if there is a distinction, the filing in a court without subject matter jurisdiction would seem to be the greater defect.
Mitzner, 709 A.2d at 828; cf. Burnett, 380 U.S. at 429 (holding that an action filed in an improper venue tolled the FELA statute of limitations, and noting that “venue objections may be waived by the defendant“). We therefore do not believe that Young is either controlling or persuasive on the question whether, purely as a matter of policy, the sounder rule is to permit equitable tolling where a plaintiff files an initial action in a court that lacks in personam jurisdiction over the defendants.
We believe that the rule adopted by the Arizona Supreme Court in Hosogai v. Kadota, 145 Ariz. 227, 700 P.2d 1327 (1985), makes more sense than the rule of New Jersey common law adopted by Young. Hosogai held that a statute of limitations is equitably tolled for a second action by the filing of a procedurally defective first action if there is: “1) timely notice to the defendant in filing the first claim; 2) lack of prejudice to the defendant in gathering evidence to defend against the second claim; [and] 3) reasonable and good faith conduct by the plaintiff in prosecuting the first action and diligence in filing the second action.” Hosogai, 700 P.2d at 1333; see also Mayes v. Leipziger, 729 F.2d 605, 608 (9th Cir. 1984) (“California equitably tolls its statutes of limitation during the pendency of an earlier case provided there is timely notice, and lack of prejudice to the defendant, and reasonable and good faith conduct on the part of the plaintiff.“) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
At the same time that the Hosogai rule avoids unfairness to plaintiffs who diligently prosecute their claims, it preserves the policies underlying statutes of limitations which, as the Supreme Court explained in Burnett, “assure fairness to defendants ... by preventing surprises through the revival of claims that have been allowed to slumber until evidence has been lost, memories have faded, and witnesses have disappeared.” 380 U.S. at 428. In Burnett, the Court held that an action dismissed for improper venue equitably tolled the FELA statute of limitations. The Court‘s holding rested on the conclusion that the policies underlying statutes of limitations would not be served by holding plaintiffs’ claims time-barred:
Petitioner here did not sleep on his rights but brought an action within the statutory period in a state court of competent jurisdiction. Service of process was made upon the respondent notifying him that petitioner was asserting his cause of action. ... Respondent could not have relied upon the policy of repose embodied in the limitation statute, for it was aware that petitioner was actively pursuing his FELA remedy; in fact, respondent appeared specially in the Ohio court to file a motion for dismissal on grounds of improper venue.
Similarly, the Hosogai rule protects defendants by permitting equitable tolling only if the filing of the first action put the defendant on notice within the limitations period, there was no prejudice to the defendant in defending the second action, and the plaintiff acted reasonably and in good faith in prosecuting the first action and exercised diligence in prosecuting the second action.
Thus, we hold that under Virgin Islands law, the statute of limitations for a second action may be equitably tolled by the filing of a first action dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction if: (1) the first action gave defendant timely notice of plaintiff‘s claim; (2) the lapse of time between the first and second actions will not prejudice the defendant; and (3) the plaintiffs acted reasonably and in good faith in prosecuting the first action, and exercised diligence in filing the second action. Application of this test to the record before us does not yield a clear-cut answer. On the one hand, the suit filed in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico within the two-year limitations period afforded defendants timely notice of plaintiffs’ claims. Moreover, at oral argument, defendants were unable to identify any prejudice caused by plaintiffs’ delay in bringing this suit following the dismissal of the first suit. On the other hand, plaintiffs’ failure to request the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico to transfer the case to the Virgin Islands, pursuant to
Application of this equitable doctrine is generally committed to the discretion of the trial court in the first instance. The record is not fully developed with respect to these issues, and the record that has been developed does not, as explained above, cut clearly in favor of plaintiffs or defendants. Accordingly, we will vacate the District Court‘s order dismissing plaintiffs’ claims as time-barred, and remand the case to the District Court further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Notes
Any person who shall procure registration in the Patent and Trademark Office of a mark by a false or fraudulent declaration or representation, oral or in writing, or by any false means, shall be liable in a civil action by any person injured thereby for any damages sustained in consequence thereof.
We are of course bound under our Internal Operating Procedures, see Third Circuit IOP 9.1, by Beauty Time. We are not uncomfortable with this posture, because while we acknowledge a possible tension between Beauty Time and these cases, we believe that they are reconcilable. In particular, Bailey addressed only the application of the discovery rule to an express federal statute of limitations, which is absent from the provisions of the Lanham Act at issue in this case and Beauty Time. Although Holmberg held that the discovery rule applied to a cause of action under a federal statute that, like the Lanham Act, lacked an express statute of limitations, Holmberg is reconcilable with Beauty Time on the ground that the statute at issue in Holmberg created only “a federal right for which the sole remedy is in equity.” Holmberg, 327 U.S. at 395 (emphasis added). In contrast, the Lanham Act creates federal rights for which both legal and equitable remedies are available. See Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U.S. 469, 477, 8 L. Ed. 2d 44, 82 S. Ct. 894 (1962) (“An action for damages based upon a charge of trademark infringement... [is] subject to cognizance by a court of law.“). Accordingly, we comfortably follow the holding of Beauty Time that where a court borrows a statute of limitations from state law, the court must also borrow from state law the relevant tolling principles. See Hardin v. Straub, 490 U.S. 536, 539, 104 L. Ed. 2d 582, 109 S. Ct. 1998 (1989) (“Limitations periods in § 1983 suits are to be determined by reference to the appropriate state statute of limitations and the coordinate tolling rules. ...“); Bd. of Regents v. Tomanio, 446 U.S. 478, 486, 64 L. Ed. 2d 440, 100 S. Ct. 1790 (1980) (“In virtually all statutes of limitations the chronological length of the limitation period is interrelated with provisions regarding tolling, revival, and questions of application. In borrowing a state period of limitation for application to a federal cause of action, a federal court is relying on the State‘s wisdom in setting a limit, and exceptions thereto, on the prosecution of a closely analogous claim.“) (quoting Johnson v. Ry. Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 464, 44 L. Ed. 2d 295, 95 S. Ct. 1716 (1975)).