Court Opinion

ID: 9725023
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:25:49.369094+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:09.227424
License: Public Domain

POTTER, Acting P. J.
I dissent.
Insurance Code section 11580.2, subdivision (k), obviously is intended to guarantee an insured the opportunity: (1) to preserve his claim against the uninsured motorist by filing suit within one year, and (2) to cause accrual of his cause of action against the insurer pursuant to section 11580.2, subdivision (i), by so filing, agreeing as to the amount of the damages or formally instituting arbitration proceedings. Because of the shortness of the time limitation involved (one year) and the likelihood that an insured making such claim may initially be unrepresented by counsel, the notice required by subdivision (k) is necessary to protect insureds from the loss of their rights.
However, once the insured’s rights against the uninsured motorist have been so preserved and his cause of action against the insurer caused to accrue by any of the three means specified in subdivision (i), the purpose of subdivision (k) has been fully served. If suit has been brought or formal arbitration proceedings instituted, the insured is either represented by counsel or has taken responsibility for knowing the applicable statute of limitation by acting as his own attorney.
Furthermore, there is no “statute of limitation applicable to such injury or death” other than the one-year limitation specified in Code of Civil Procedure section 340 and in Insurance Code section 11580.2, subdivision (i). It is to notify the insured of these limitations that the insurer is required by subdivision (k) to give notice. (Branham v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (1975) 48 Cal.App.3d 27, 30-31 [121 Cal.Rptr. 304].) Once the required action is taken to avoid these limitations, further notice of them would be wholly redundant, since it would not furnish the insured with any information of any significance to him. Nor is there any reason under the circumstances to require the insurer to give notice of the four-year limitation imposed by Code of Civil Procedure section 337. If the insurer does not act favorably on the claim, the insured’s cause of action under the policy has accrued. The four-year limitation of Code of Civil Procedure section 337 is applicable, but *505it constitutes no more of a threat to the insured’s rights than it does to any other party with a breach of contract claim. Section 337 is not a limitation applicable to injury or death of which notice is required by Insurance Code section 11580.2, subdivision (k); the latter section evidences no intention on the part of the Legislature to require insurance companies to give notice of any and all statutes of limitations which may affect their insureds’ rights. Insurers are as much prejudiced by delay as other litigants. The failure of petitioner to take any action upon her claim for five years after filing suit was inexcusable.
I would affirm.
Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied September 17, 1980.