Court Opinion

ID: 9730157
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:02:55.781901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:04.564425
License: Public Domain

WIENER, J.
I respectfully dissent.
Because plaintiff was one day late in the superior court, the majority denies him his right to litigate his claim timely presented to the public entity and filed within the one-year period generally governing his suit. (Code Civ. Proc., § 340.) In order to fully appreciate this holding, an examination of the respective purposes of the Tort Claims Act (§ 900 et seq., Claims Act)1 and Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 is helpful.
Claim requirements against a public entity satisfy dual goals. “‘First, they give the governmental entity an opportunity to settle just claims before suit is brought. Second, they permit the entity to make an early investigation of the facts on which a claim is based, thus enabling it to defend itself against unjust claims and to correct the conditions or practices which gave rise to the claim.’” (Cal. Government Tort Liability (Cont.Ed.Bar 1964) § 8.5, p. 361, quoting Cal. Law Revision Com. Rep.)
*48These goals are furthered by statutes of limitations which prescribe reasonable periods of time for the filing of claims. “[T]he primary purpose of statutes of limitation is to prevent the assertion of stale claims by plaintiffs who have failed to file their action until evidence is no longer fresh and witnesses are no longer available. . . . The statutes, accordingly, serve a distinct public purpose, preventing the assertion of demands which through the unexcused lapse of time, have been rendered difficult or impossible to defend.” (Addison v. State of California (1978) 21 Cal.3d 313, 317 [146 Cal.Rptr. 224, 578 P.2d 941].)
Although lip service is still given to the statement that “‘statutes of limitations for commencement of actions against the state “are mandatory and must be strictly complied with”’” (Addison v. State of California, supra, 21 Cal.3d at p. 316), we have been told that we should strive “to soften the harsh impact of technical rules which might otherwise prevent a good faith litigant from having a day in court.” (Ibid.)
Judicial perception of the Claims Act has prompted a concern that it not be interpreted in a manner which will “snare the unwary where its purpose has been satisfied . ... ” (Elias v. San Bernardino County Flood Control Dist. (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 70, 74 [135 Cal.Rptr. 621].) This empathetic and understanding judicial attitude allows litigants who are not fully cognizant of the technical demands of the statute to substantially comply with its requirements and still gain access to the courtroom for a full trial. (Id., at p. 74.) To this end, the Legislature has provided reasonable notice for presentation of a claim against a public entity is within 100 days after the accrual of the cause of action (§ 911.2), but where the failure to present the claim was “through mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect and the public entity was not prejudiced” (§ 911.6), an additional 265 days is permitted provided the public entity consents to the filing of the late claim (§ 911.4). A judicial interpretation of a legislative scheme which results in giving the untimely claimant up to 19 1/2 months to file his claim and lawsuit compared to the timely claimant who only has about 11 months to do the same is indeed paradoxical. (§§ 911.2, 911.4, 911.6.)
The suggestion that legitimate judicial concern either does, or should, disappear because the timely claimant always has superior knowledge as to when his lawsuit must be filed is a questionable premise. There is no rational basis to treat the diligent claimant more harshly than the tardy claimant where the purpose of the statute is satisfied and the pub-*49lie entity sustains no prejudice. (But see Hunter v. County of Los Angeles (1968) 262 Cal.App.2d 820, 822 [69 Cal.Rptr. 288].) The fact that the plaintiff here is a timely claimant who has satisfied the purposes of the Claims Act should work for, and not against, him.
Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 was enacted “to make allowance for the uncertainties of mail delivery by giving recipients of mailed notices or papers longer time to act or exercise their rights.” (Review of Selected 1974 Cal. Legislation (1975) 6 Pacific L.J. 219.) The Legislature, aware of the vagaries of the postal service and the unfairness to persons who might be prejudiced because of the time lapse between the deposit of a notice in the mail and the actual receipt of that notice, provided for extensions of 5, 10, or 20 days, depending on the location of the addressee. The purpose of that section was to assure that even something as simple as computing time should comport with our basic notion of fair play, i.e., one should have actual knowledge of impending action affecting one’s rights before that action is taken.
Within these parameters, certain rules of statutory construction are important. The fundamental function of statutory interpretation is to determine the intent of the Legislature in order to effectuate the purpose of the laws. (Hogya v. Superior Court (1977) 75 Cal.App.3d 122, 132 [142 Cal.Rptr. 325]; Select Base Materials v. Board of Equal. (1959) 51 Cal.2d 640, 645 [335 P.2d 672].) Whenever possible, statutes should be harmonized to give a common sense construction to the language which will lead to a wise result rather than to mischief or absurdity. (Anaheim Union Water Co. v. Franchise Tax Bd. (1972) 26 Cal.App.3d 95, 105-106 [102 Cal.Rptr. 692].) “[Practical construction [should] be given to the language employed by the draftsmen of legislation lest their purposes be too easily nullified by overrefined inquiries into the meanings of words.” (People v. Deibert (1953) 117 Cal.App.2d 410, 418 [256 P.2d 355].)
One of the purposes of the Claims Act is to assure that a rejected claimant receives notice. Section 913, subdivision (b), requires that the notice include a warning explaining the individual has only six months from the date the notice was personally delivered or deposited in the mail to file a court action. The spirit underlying that provision is to make sure that rejected claimants be apprised of the status of their claim. That spirit is certainly consistent with Code of Civil Procedure section 1013, subdivision (a), which was enacted to insure that individuals will not be deprived of rights because of errant mail service. The *50Legislature, desiring a rejected claimant to have six months to file his suit, provided the accrual of the running of that period of time should start with personal delivery of the notice (actual knowledge), or when the individual is presumed to have constructive knowledge, i.e. date of mailing plus five days. Construed in this manner, the six months is a constant period starting from either actual knowledge or constructive knowledge of the rejected claim.
Here, the majority’s holding, depriving plaintiff of his day in court, cannot be grounded on the rationale that to do otherwise would frustrate the purpose of the Claims Act. Plaintiff’s timely presentation of his claim placed the public entity on notice permitting it to make whatever investigation or attempts at settlement it deemed appropriate. I see no reason to go beyond the plain meaning of this provision when its language is clear and unambiguous.
In 1967, the Legislature amended Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 to exclude “filing notice of intention to move for new trial, notice of intention to move to vacate judgment pursuant to Section 663a of this code [Civil Procedure] or notice of appeal” from its purview. (Stats. 1967, ch. 169, § 6, p. 1267.) Also, each code provision regarding the above procedures was amended to specifically exclude Civil Procedure section 1013. Presumably, the Legislature knew what it was saying and meant what it said (Pac. Gas & E. Co. v. Shasta Dam etc. Dist. (1955) 135 Cal.App.2d 463, 468 [287 P.2d 841]), for in enacting laws it is presumed to know existing law (Bailey v. Superior Court (1977) 19 Cal.3d 970, 977-978, fn. 10 [140 Cal.Rptr. 669, 568 P.2d 394]). Had the Legislature intended to provide for another exception, they would have done so. There is no reason to go beyond the plain meaning of these provisions when the language is clear and unambiguous and no uncertainty or doubt as to legislative intent exists. (Teachers Management & Inv. Corp. v. City of Santa Cruz (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d 438, 446 [134 Cal.Rptr. 523].) However, even in the case of uncertainty, the rule of construction expressio unius est exclusio alterius (the expression of certain things in a statute necessarily involves exclusion of other things not expressed) precludes the court from creating further exceptions. (See Henderson v. Mann Theatres Corp. (1976) 65 Cal.App.3d 397, 403 [135 Cal.Rptr. 266], cert. den. 434 U.S. 825 [54 L.Ed.2d 83, 98 S.Ct. 73]; Gilgert v. Stocton Port District (1936) 7 Cal.2d 384, 387 [60 P.2d 847].)
*51The majority prefers to interpret the legislation as construed in Smith v. City and County of San Francisco (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 227 [137 Cal.Rptr. 146], where the court created an exception to Code of Civil Procedure section 1013. However, my independent research has failed to produce any other situation where the courts have refused to apply Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 to extend time where one of the five2 specific exceptions was not involved3 or a rule specifically stated it was not to be extended.4
This court is not bound by Smith (see 6 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (1979 supp.) Appeal, § 667, p. 98), and I do not find its rationale persuasive.
The Smith court was overly preoccupied with what it thought to be the mathematical uncertainty if the six months were to be computed from date of personal delivery but the rejected claimant would have six months and five days if Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 were to be applied. This alleged uncertainty is nonexistent if the accrual periods *52start when the rejected claimant has either actual or constructive knowledge. Even if it can be rationally concluded that there are disparate periods, I should not think fastidiousness with mathematical certainty should prompt an unjust result, particularly where the authority underlying Smith has been weakened (see Addison, supra, 21 Cal.3d 313) or questioned (see, e.g. Savage v. State of California (1970) 4 Cal.App.3d 793 [84 Cal.Rptr. 650].)
A case should not be used as authority for an issue neither raised nor discussed. The case here is a summary judgment question involving certified mail, a different problem than that presented in Smith. Although I believe section 1013, subdivision (a), is sufficient reason to conclude plaintiff’s action was timely filed, I note plaintiff’s counsel, in opposition to the motion, raised a factual question pertaining to his receipt of the rejected claim. Counsel declared that after reading the warning on the County’s rejection form he reasonably concluded the certified letter which required his secretary’s signature acknowledging receipt was personally delivered on the date she signed the form and accordingly he calendared the six months from that date. On these uncontroverted facts, plaintiff’s counsel may neither be called untruthful nor irrational. A summary judgment may not be granted where there are triable issues of material fact. I would reverse the judgment.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied July 29, 1981. Bird, C. J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

A11 statutory references are to the Government Code unless otherwise specified.

There have been additional exceptions created by legislative enactments which are not mentioned in Code of Civil Procedure section 1013. First, operative in 1970, Code of Civil Procedure section 413.20 was added to exclude service of summons by mail. (Stats. 1969, ch. 1610, § 3, pp. 3362, 3365.) “The provisions governing mail service of summons contain their own time provisions, which do not vary depending on the distance which separates the sender and the addressee.” (Comment-Judicial Council, Code Civ. Proc., § 413.20.) Second, in 1977, section 594 of the Code of Civil Procedure was amended to add, “The time provisions of Section 1013 shall not serve to extend the notice of trial requirements under this subdivision for unlawful detainer actions.” (Stats. 1977, ch. 1257, § 19.5, pp. 4753, 4762; see, e.g., Highland Plastics, Inc. v. Enders (1980) 109 Cal.App.3d Supp. 1 [167 Cal.Rptr. 353].)

In Highland Plastics, Inc. v. Enders, supra, 109 Cal.App.3d Supp. at p. 8, footnote 4, the court expresses a view that the Legislature intended Code of Civil Procedure section 1013 apply only to service of documents subsequent to the filing and service of a complaint. Had this been their intent they would have so stated rather than creating specific exceptions for unlawful detainers and service of summons. There is no special attachment between the word complaint and the scope of Code of Civil Procedure section 1013. The courts have extended time in several noncomplaint situations such as appeals from decisions and orders of administrative agencies (Pesce v. Dept. of Alcoholic Bev. Control (1958) 51 Cal.2d 310, 312-313 [333 P.2d 15]; Sinclair v. Baker (1963) 219 Cal.App.2d 817, 822 [33 Cal.Rptr. 522]; response to discharge forfeiture of bond (People v. National Auto & Cas. Ins. Co. (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 907 [155 Cal.Rptr. 602] [to which I concurred]); modification of judgment for order after final decree of dissolution was entered (West v. West (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 120 [154 Cal.Rptr. 667]); and notice for modification of order changing custody (Parker v. Parker (1974) 43 Cal.App.3d 610 [117 Cal.Rptr. 707]).

California Rules of Court, rule 1616, Trial After Arbitration, specifically states in subdivision (a): “The 20-day period within which to request trial may not be extended.” (See Amoroso v. Superior Court (1979) 89 Cal.App.3d 240 [152 Cal.Rptr. 398].)