## Facts

- Murray Scott, a Wisconsin resident, was injured at age 11 while using a barn cleaner on his family’s farm in Alberta, Canada.
- Scott and his parents sued in Wisconsin about six years after the accident, naming entities involved in the barn cleaner’s design, manufacture, or sale and their insurers.
- During the entire period after the accident, Scott remained in the actual custody of his parents.
- Alberta law provided a two-year limitations period for the claim and tolled limitations for minors except when the minor was in the actual custody of a parent or guardian.
- Wisconsin law included a borrowing statute for foreign causes of action, Wis. Stat. § 893.07(1), and a disability tolling statute for minors, Wis. Stat. § 893.16(1), which tolls until age 18 without regard to custody.
- Defendants argued that Wisconsin must apply Alberta’s two-year limitations period together with Alberta’s custody-based restriction on minor tolling, making the suit untimely.
- Plaintiffs argued that Wisconsin borrows only Alberta’s two-year period length and applies Wisconsin’s own tolling rules, making the suit timely.

## Issues

1. Whether Wis. Stat. § 893.07(1) requires Wisconsin courts to apply not only the foreign jurisdiction’s limitations period length but also the foreign jurisdiction’s tolling and disability rules.
2. Whether Wis. Stat. § 893.16(1) tolls the borrowed limitations period during a plaintiff’s minority in a foreign-injury case.

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals.
- The court held that § 893.07(1) borrows only the foreign “period of limitation” (the length of time to sue), not the foreign jurisdiction’s tolling provisions.
- The court held that Wisconsin’s minor-tolling statute, § 893.16(1), governs tolling in Wisconsin courts for a foreign cause of action.
- Applying Alberta’s two-year period length, tolled under Wisconsin law during Scott’s minority, the action was timely and could proceed.

## Legal Principles

- Wisconsin’s borrowing statute, Wis. Stat. § 893.07(1), incorporates the length of the foreign limitations period applicable to a foreign cause of action.
- The borrowing statute does not incorporate the foreign jurisdiction’s tolling, disability, or suspension doctrines.
- Wisconsin’s tolling statute for minors, Wis. Stat. § 893.16(1), applies to toll the borrowed limitations period during minority, regardless of parental custody.

## Conclusion

Wisconsin applies the shorter foreign limitations period length to foreign-injury claims under its borrowing statute, but tolling is governed by Wisconsin law; therefore, a minor plaintiff may rely on Wisconsin’s minority tolling even when the foreign jurisdiction would not toll due to parental custody.


Scott v. First State Ins. Co., 456 N.W.2d 152 (Wis. 1990)