Court Opinion

ID: 9728981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:21:05.497738+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:53.818000
License: Public Domain

FLEMING, J.
I dissent.
The period of limitation for bringing an action under the policy is one year. The period of limitation for bringing a new action after reversal of judgment or dismissal without trial is one year. (Code Civ. Proc., § 355; Bollinger v. National Fire Ins. Co., 25 Cal.2d 399, 409-410 [154 P.2d 399].) The period of limitation for an action by representatives of a decedent is six months. (Code Civ. Proc., § 353.) While nice questions might arise over which of these provisions would fit the facts of a particular case, here the two-year delay from the dismissal of the first action in March 1971 to the filing of a new action on the same claim in April 1973 outlawed the action under any of the foregoing limitations.
*498Plaintiff relies on Bollinger v. National Fire Ins. Co., 25 Cal.2d 399 [154 P.2d 399], a case where defendant’s estoppel, waiver, and dilatory tactics excused plaintiff’s compliance with the limitation period of the policy. In that case, however, the second action was filed four days after the dismissal of the first action, and consequently, even though the policy period of limitation had run, the filing was ruled timely because the one-year period of limitation for refiling under section 355 had not run. At bench there is no suggestion that defendant was estopped by its conduct from relying on the policy period of limitation, or that it had waived its rights, or that it had used dilatory tactics. On dismissal of the first action at a time subsequent to the expiration of the one-year policy period, the maximum period for bringing a new action was no more than one year. (Bollinger v. National Fire Ins. Co., supra, pp. 408-411.)
Plaintiff suggests the second action was a continuation of the first, and from this she concludes she did not need to comply with any further period of limitation once she had filed her original action within the policy limitation period. Even if we accept her suggestion of continuity of action as true, her conclusion does not follow, for continuity of action does no more than bring her within the one-year grace period for refiling under section 355.
In sum, I would hold that the policy period of limitation controls the time within which an action may be brought, that any new action commenced after the expiration of the policy period of limitation must, at a minimum, comply with the one-year period of section 355.
I would affirm the judgment of dismissal and terminate this stale litigation.