Statute of Limitations

The filing of a complaint tolls the statute of limitations for claims that the defendant pleads in a cross-complaint in the same action, regardless whether the cross-complaint is compulsory or permissive.  Read More

The one-year limitations period governing medical malpractice actions (CCP 340.5) governs a claim of injury suffered on a fall from a hospital  gurney, since gurney transport was under a doctor’s orders and was integral to the patient’s treatment.  Read More

A claim of childhood sexual abuse brought against a government agency is exempt from the requirement of filing a government claim before suing even if the abuse is not alleged to have been committed by the agency’s employee, volunteer, representative or agent.  Read More

The six-month limitations period under the federal Railway Labor Act was equitably tolled by time expended while the parties brought their dispute before the Railway Mediation Board.  Read More

The limitations period for a doctor’s claim for payment of services rendered insured patients is not tolled while the doctor invokes the insurer’s internal process for appealing claim denials.  Read More

A public entity has four years to sue to invalidate its own contract under Gov. Code 1090 because of a board member approving the contract was on the contractor’s payroll, not the mere 60 days allowed a private party to sue to invalidate the public entity’s contracts.  Read More

The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) provides an extension on the statutes of limitations for contract and tort claims in actions brought by the National Credit Union Administration Board, which supersedes other limitations periods set by state or federal statute.  Read More

Plaintiff injured in an auto accident by defendant driving an ambulance was subject to the two-year limitations period for personal injury claims arising from general negligence—as opposed to the one-year period that applies to medical malpractice claims—since the act of driving the ambulance does not involve the practice of medicine.  Read More

Plaintiff’s one-year limitations period for bringing suit after the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing issued a right-to-sue letter should be equitably tolled for a year beyond the EEOC’s issuance of its own right-to-sue  letter, because plaintiff reasonably relied on the DFEH letter’s incorrect statement that the limitations period would be tolled while EEOC investigated the claim.  Read More

A prisoner serving a life sentence with possibility of parole is entitled to a two-year tolling of the statute of limitations on his medical malpractice claims arising out of treatment in a prison hospital.  Read More

A child molester’s “grooming” presents to the molested minor did not trigger application of Insurance Code section 11583 which tolls the statute of limitations on partial payment of compensation for injury given without notice of applicable limitations periods.  Read More

A suit for pre-natal injuries caused by exposure to toxic chemicals is governed by CCP 340.4 (providing for a 6-year from birth limitations period not tolled during minority) rather than CCP 340.8 (providing for a two-year from discovery limitations period for suits for injuries from toxic chemicals, subject to tolling for minority).  Read More

The attorney and mental health care worker certificates of merit that an adult older than 26 must file to bring a claim for childhood sexual abuse need not be verified but must state facts as to each defendant sufficient to allow the trial court to assess the suit’s potential merit.  Read More

To preserve a statute of limitations defense, the answer must (1) allege facts showing that the action is time-barred and showing that the defense of the statute of limitations is being raised, or (2) plead the specific section and subdivision of the CCP which is applicable and bars the suit; catch-all references to a range of statutes are insufficient to… Read More