nullum tempus
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 304 U.S. 126 - Guaranty Trust Co of New York v. United States · 1938Most cited · 1,251 citing opinions
quod nullum tempus occurrit regi—that the sovereign is exempt from the consequences of its laches, and from the operation of statutes of limitations. The true reason is to be found in the great public policy of preserving the public rights, revenues, and property from injury and loss, by the negligence of public officers; it is in fact nothing more than a reservation, or exception, introduced for the public benefit, and equally applicable to all governments.
How often courts cite the case defining “nullum tempus”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “nullum tempus” — 1,248 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.