Paniagua v. Orange County Fire Authority is a newly-published case in which we represented the defendant city as appellate counsel. It resolves two unsettled issues concerning the statute of limitations for filing a complaint against a public entity after a late-claim application is denied.
In 1998, the plaintiff in Paniagua was injured in a fight. Police officers of the defendant city detained plaintiff, and called paramedics from the defendant fire authority to examine him. The paramedics recommended plaintiff seek medical treatment. Plaintiff refused. The officers drove plaintiff to his home. After the officers left, plaintiff fell into a coma. He has never awakened.
Within a year of the incident, attorneys for plaintiff sued the man who hit plaintiff. A little over a year after the incident, the attorneys filed late-claim applications with the public entity defendants. Both denied the applications. The appellate court determined that the denials failed to specifically deny the claims, thus triggering the two-year-from-accrual statute of limitations.
The attorneys petitioned the court for relief from the claims requirements. They appealed the denial. In 2002, the appellate court ruled that the public entities should have granted the applications, and therefore affirmed the denial of the petition (as superfluous). Several months after the case was remitted to trial court, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint naming the public entity defendants.
The trial court granted the public entities judgment based on the two-year statute of limitations. The appellate court affirmed. In the process, it held:
-- Plaintiff's cause of action accrued when he was assaulted.
-- The plaintiff's incapacity did not toll his two years to file a complaint -- even during the time he lacked a guardian or conservator. Incapacity can only excuse late presentation of a claim or (in certain circumstances) a late-claim application; it cannot excuse a late complaint.
-- The appeal from denial of the section 946.6 petition for relief from claim requirements tolled the statute of limitations. It was a necessary step before they could file suit.
-- But even subtracting the two years the petition appeal was pending, the complaint was filed more than two years after accrual. It was therefore time-barred.