Opinion ID: 769013
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Morales Case

Text: 4 In 1989, Morales was arrested by Los Angeles police officers and charged with sale of cocaine. At a jury trial, he was acquitted. Thereafter, on November 27, 1990, Morales filed a civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. S 1983 and California law in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging that L.A.P.D. officers falsified police reports and records in an effort wrongfully to secure his conviction. On April 4, 1995, the trial court granted a motion for non-suit and entered judgment for the defendants. The California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in an unpublished opinion. The California Supreme Court denied review on February 3, 1998. 5 On May 20, 1998, Morales filed a second civil rights action, this time in federal court, alleging that the police officers falsely arrested him, fabricated a police report, destroyed records, and testified falsely at the state civil trial that ended in the non-suit on April 4, 1995. Morales alleged that these actions violated his due process right to access to the courts and California state law. 6 Defendants filed a motion for judicial notice of the earlier state court judgment and moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to file the action within the period of the statute of limitations. The district court dismissed the complaint, holding that the one-year limitations period began to run on April 4, 1995, the date on which the Los Angeles County Superior Court entered judgment against Morales, and consequently, that the complaint filed on May 20, 1998, was time-barred. 7 We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. S 1291 and review both Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) dismissals de novo. We accept all factual allegations of the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party. TwoRivers v. Lewis, 174 F.3d 987, 991 (9th Cir. 1999). The district court may grant a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds  `only if the assertions of the complaint, read with the required liberality, would not permit the plaintiff to prove that the statute was tolled.'  Id., (quoting Vaughan v. Grijalva, 927 F.2d 476, 478 (9th Cir. 1991)).