# Courts and Judicial Proceedings (GCJ)

## Title 5. Limitations, Prohibited Actions, and Immunities

### Subtitle 2. Computing Time

#### Section 5-201

(a) When a cause of action subject to a limitation under Subtitle 1 of this title or Title 3, Subtitle 9 of this article accrues in favor of a minor or mental incompetent, that person shall file his action within the lesser of three years or the applicable period of limitations after the date the disability is removed.

(b) This section does not apply if the statute of limitations has more than three years to run when the disability is removed.

(c) Imprisonment, absence from the State, or marriage are not disabilities which extend the statute of limitations.

#### Section 5-202

If a debtor files a petition in insolvency which is later dismissed, the time between the filing and the dismissal is not included in determining whether a claim against the debtor is barred by the statute of limitations.

#### Section 5-203

If the knowledge of a cause of action is kept from a party by the fraud of an adverse party, the cause of action shall be deemed to accrue at the time when the party discovered, or by the exercise of ordinary diligence should have discovered the fraud.

#### Section 5-203.1

(a) This section applies only to a survival cause of action arising from conduct that constitutes a criminal homicide under State or federal law.

(b) If knowledge of a cause of action concerning a homicide or the identity of a person who contributed to the homicide is kept from a party by the conduct of an adverse party or an accessory or accomplice of an adverse party:

  (1) The cause of action shall be deemed to accrue at the time the party discovered or should have discovered by the exercise of ordinary diligence the homicide and the identity of the person who contributed to the homicide; and

  (2) A presumption shall exist that the party should have discovered by the exercise of ordinary diligence the identity of the person who contributed to the homicide after:

    (i) A charging document is filed against the person alleged to have participated in the homicide; and

    (ii) The charging document is unsealed and available to the public.

#### Section 5-204

A foreign corporation or foreign limited partnership required by law to qualify or register to do business in the State or a person claiming under the foreign corporation or foreign limited partnership, may not benefit from any statute of limitations in an action at law or suit in equity:

(1) Arising out of a contract made or liability incurred by the foreign corporation or foreign limited partnership while doing business without having qualified or registered; or

(2) Instituted while the foreign corporation or foreign limited partnership is doing intrastate or interstate or foreign business in the State without having qualified or registered.

#### Section 5-205

(a) A person who absents himself from the State or removes from county to county after contracting a debt, so that his creditor may be uncertain of finding the person or his property, may not have the benefit of any limitation contained in this title, but this subsection does not prohibit a person from removing himself or his family from one county to another for reasons of convenience nor does it deprive any person leaving the State for the time limited in this subsection of the benefits of any statute of limitations if he leaves sufficient and known effects for the payment of his just debts in the hands of some person who will assume the payment of them to his creditors.

(b) A person who is absent from the State when a cause of action accrues against him may not benefit from a statute of limitation if the plaintiff files the action within the normal limitations period after the defendant returns to the State.

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Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. (as displayed at mgaleg.maryland.gov, October 16, 2026)