33Fraud and concealment

33 Fraud and concealment (1) Subject to this section, if— (a) there is a cause of action based on fraud or deceit; or (b) a fact relevant to a cause of action or the identity of a person against whom a cause of action lies is deliberately concealed; the time that elapses after a limitation period fixed by or under this Act for the cause of action begins to run and before the date when a person having (either solely or with other persons) the cause of action first discovers, or may with reasonable diligence discover, the fraud, deceit or concealment, as the case may be, does not count in the reckoning of the limitation period for an action on the cause of action by him or her or by a person claiming through him or her against a person answerable for the fraud, deceit or concealment. (2) Subsection (1) has effect whether the limitation period for the cause of action would, apart from this section, end before or after the date mentioned in that subsection. (3) Without limiting subsection (1), deliberate commission of a breach of duty in circumstances in which it is unlikely to be discovered for some time amounts to deliberate concealment of the facts involved in that breach of duty. (4) For subsection (1), a person is answerable for fraud, deceit or concealment if, but only if— (a) he or she is a party to the fraud, deceit or concealment; or Part 3 Postponement of bar Division 3.1 General Section 34 page 32 Limitation Act 1985 Effective: 26/11/25 R28 26/11/25 Authorised by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel—also accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au (b) he or she is, in relation to the cause of action, a successor of a party to the fraud, deceit or concealment under a devolution from the party occurring after the date when the fraud, deceit or concealment first occurs. (5) If property is, after the first occurrence of fraud, deceit or concealment, purchased for valuable consideration by a person who is not a party to the fraud, deceit or concealment and does not, at the time of the purchase, know or have reason to believe that the fraud, deceit or concealment has occurred, subsection (1) does not, in relation to that fraud, deceit or concealment, apply to a limitation period for a cause of action against the purchaser or a person claiming through him or her.