Donald Masters v. Boston Scientific Corporation

MEMORANDUM

Boston Scientific Corporation (“Boston Scientific”) appeals a district court judgment awarding $279,500 in damages to Donald Masters. We reverse because Masters’ action is barred by Massachusetts’s six-year statute of limitations for breach of contract actions. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260 § 2.

The district court properly concluded that Masters’ injury occurred on January 12, 2001, when he left employment with Boston Scientific and, pursuant to the relevant options agreements between the parties (the “2000 Agreements”), his options lapsed immediately. In Massachusetts, “[t]he general rule is that a contract action accrues at the time the contract is breached.” Berkshire Mut. Ins. Co. v. Burbank, 422 Mass. 659, 661 , 664 N.E.2d 1188 (1996). Masters filed the present action in California state court on May 2, 2007, more than six years later. Thus, his action is time-barred unless the statute of limitations was tolled. Under Massachusetts law, there are three tolling doctrines potentially relevant here: the discovery rule, the fraudulent concealment doctrine, and equitable estoppel. None of the doctrines applies here.

First, the discovery rule provides that if an action…