Page:Arellano v. McDonough.pdf/6

Rh disorder bipolar type with posttraumatic stress disorder. It assigned an effective date of June 3, 2011, the day that the VA received his claim.

Arellano appealed the regional office’s decision to the VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals. He acknowledged that he did not submit an application for benefits until June 2011. But he argued that the regional office should have equitably tolled §5110(b)(1)’s 1-year timeline to make his award effective as of the day after his discharge from service in 1981 or, at the latest, January 1, 1982. In support of equitable tolling, Arellano alleged that he had been too ill to know that he could apply for service-connected disability benefits. The Board denied Arellano’s request for equitable tolling, and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims affirmed.

The en banc Federal Circuit affirmed the judgment unanimously but divided equally on the supporting rationale. Half the court, adhering to Circuit precedent, maintained that §5110(b)(1) is not subject to equitable tolling. 1 F. 4th 1059, 1086 (2021) (Chen, J., concurring in judgment); see Andrews v. Principi, 351 F. 3d 1134 (2003). The other half, rejecting Circuit precedent, reasoned that §5110(b)(1) is subject to equitable tolling but that tolling was unwarranted on the facts of Arellano’s case. 1 F. 4th, at 1099 (Dyk, J., concurring in judgment).

We granted certiorari to resolve which side had the better interpretation of the statute. 595 U. S. ___ (2022).

Equitable tolling “effectively extends an otherwise discrete limitations period set by Congress.” Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez, 572 U. S. 1, 10 (2014). In practice, it “pauses the running of, or ‘tolls,’ a statute of limitations when a litigant has pursued his rights diligently but some extraordinary circumstance prevents him from bringing a timely action.” Ibid. The doctrine “is a traditional feature of American jurisprudence and a background principle