“The Federal Circuit held petitioners’ claims time barred under 28 U.S.C. ยง 2501, which prescribes that all Tucker Act claims must be filed within six years of the date they ‘first accrue[d].’ In the Federal Circuit’s view, passage of [the Emergency Low Income Housing Preservation Act of 1987 (ELIHPA)] constituted an immediate breach of the FmHA loan agreements and therefore triggered the running of the limitations period. Petitioners filed suit not ‘within six years of,’ but over nine years after, ELIHPA’s enactment. On that account, the Federal Circuit held their claims untimely, and their suits properly dismissed.”
“ELIHPA’s enactment, we conclude, qualified as a repudiation of the parties’ bargain, not a present breach of the loan agreements. Accordingly, breach would occur, and the six-year limitations period would commence to run, when a borrower tenders prepayment and the Government then dishonors its obligation to accept the tender and release its control over use of the property that secured the loan.”
