1) Revival is requesting a court to reinstate the force of a dormant judgment—i.e. a judgment that was issued and has since lapsed or expired. Also referred to as renewal of judgment in some jurisdictions. Many state statutes lay out how an individual can go about reviving a dormant judgment. For example, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Ch. 31 § 31.006 provides that “[a] dormant judgment may be revived by scire facias or by an action of debt brought not later than the second anniversary of the date that the judgment becomes dormant.”
2) The ability of a party to bring a claim that would otherwise be time-barred by the statutes of limitation because of a statutory exception to the statute of limitations. For example, New York Civil Practice Law & Rules § 214-g, also known as the Child Victims Act, allows adults who claim that they are victims of child abuse to circumvent the statute of limitations to bring their claims of child abuse, if they meet certain conditions. As another example, when an obligee holds a time-barred claim against an obligor, but the obligor admits to the obligation, some jurisdictions have created statutory exceptions to the statute of limitations which allow the obligee to bring suit against the obligor. For example, in Mosab Constr. Corp. v. Prospect Park Yeshiva, Inc., the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division held that a party’s written recognition of a debt effectively revived the creditor’s otherwise time-barred claim to collect the debt, pursuant to New York General Obligations Law § 17-101.
[Last updated in April of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]