After intense debates on the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in ruling on the Extraordinary Appel (RE) nº 852.475, on August 8, 2018, such body decided that the actions for reimbursement of damages against the Treasury, due to unlawful conducts – that is, in which the agent acts consciously, and free, to practice the action, assuming the risks of this conduct – are imprescriptible.

The culpable conducts, characterized in the occasions in which the agent acts with imprudence, negligence or malpractice, in turn, are subject to a five-year limitation period, as provided by Law No. 8429, of 1992 (Administrative Improbability Act).

In synthesis, the legal discussion involved the article 37 of Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 which states that the law shall establish the limitation periods for offenses committed by any agent, whether or not servant, that cause damage to the treasury, except for the respective reimbursement actions.

Despite the General Principle of Prescriptibility of the Actions, guiding the Brazilian Procedural Law, the imprescriptibility of the judicial suits of reimbursement resulting from an unlawful misconduct is now pacified.

Although the STF pacified the legal discussion, such position is not new, highlighting the Precedent nº 282 of the Brazilian Court of Auditors, approved on August 2012, determining that “the actions of reimbursement filled by the State against the agents causing damages to the Treasury are imprescriptible”.

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