50a USC Rule - Stay of proceedings when servicemember has notice

(a) Applicability of section

This section applies to any civil action or proceeding, including any child custody proceeding, in which the plaintiff or defendant at the time of filing an application under this section—

(1) is in military service or is within 90 days after termination of or release from military service; and

(2) has received notice of the action or proceeding.

(b) Stay of proceedings

(1) Authority for stay

At any stage before final judgment in a civil action or proceeding in which a servicemember described in subsection (a) is a party, the court may on its own motion and shall, upon application by the servicemember, stay the action for a period of not less than 90 days, if the conditions in paragraph (2) are met.

(2) Conditions for stay

An application for a stay under paragraph (1) shall include the following:

(A) A letter or other communication setting forth facts stating the manner in which current military duty requirements materially affect the servicemember’s ability to appear and stating a date when the servicemember will be available to appear.

(B) A letter or other communication from the servicemember’s commanding officer stating that the servicemember’s current military duty prevents appearance and that military leave is not authorized for the servicemember at the time of the letter.

(c) Application not a waiver of defenses

An application for a stay under this section does not constitute an appearance for jurisdictional purposes and does not constitute a waiver of any substantive or procedural defense (including a defense relating to lack of personal jurisdiction).

(d) Additional stay

(1) Application

A servicemember who is granted a stay of a civil action or proceeding under subsection (b) may apply for an additional stay based on continuing material affect of military duty on the servicemember’s ability to appear. Such an application may be made by the servicemember at the time of the initial application under subsection (b) or when it appears that the servicemember is unavailable to prosecute or defend the action. The same information required under subsection (b)(2) shall be included in an application under this subsection.

(2) Appointment of counsel when additional stay refused

If the court refuses to grant an additional stay of proceedings under paragraph (1), the court shall appoint counsel to represent the servicemember in the action or proceeding.

(e) Coordination with section 201

A servicemember who applies for a stay under this section and is unsuccessful may not seek the protections afforded by section 201 [section 521 of this Appendix].

(f) Inapplicability to section 301

The protections of this section do not apply to section 301 [section 531 of this Appendix].

Source

(Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title II, § 202, as added Pub. L. 108–189, § 1,Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2842; amended Pub. L. 108–454, title VII, § 703,Dec. 10, 2004, 118 Stat. 3624; Pub. L. 110–181, div. A, title V, § 584(b),Jan. 28, 2008, 122 Stat. 128.)

Prior Provisions

A prior section 522, act Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, art. II, § 202,54 Stat. 1181, related to fines and penalties on contracts, prior to the general amendment of this Act by Pub. L. 108–189. See section 523 of this Appendix.

Amendments

2008—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 110–181inserted “, including any child custody proceeding,” after “civil action or proceeding” in introductory provisions.

2004—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 108–454inserted “plaintiff or” before “defendant” in introductory provisions.

Stay of Judicial Proceedings

Pub. L. 102–12, § 6,Mar. 18, 1991, 105 Stat. 37, provided that:

“(a) Stay of Action or Proceeding.—In any judicial action or proceeding (other than a criminal proceeding) in which a member of the Armed Forces described in subsection (b) is involved (either as plaintiff or defendant), the court shall, upon application by such member (or some other person on the member’s behalf) at any stage before final judgment is entered, stay the action or proceeding until a date after June 30, 1991.

“(b) Members Covered.—A member of the Armed Forces is covered by subsection (a) if at the time of application for the stay of a judicial action or proceeding the member—

“(1) is on active duty; and

“(2) is serving outside the State in which the court having jurisdiction over the action or proceeding is located.

“(c) Definition.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘State’ includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.”

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Friday, May 3, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

50a USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

50a USC Rule - Stay of proceedings when servicemember has notice

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Find a Lawyer

Get Involved