Wells Fargo Bank v. Superior Court of Sacramento Cty.

At the time of the events before us, the statute of limitations governing medical malpractice actions was Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, as adopted in 1970. The 1970 statute described the deadline for suit in the following terms: “. . . four years after the date of injury or one year after the plaintiff discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever first occurs. This time limitation shall be tolled for any period during which [the defendant] has failed to disclose any act, error, or omission upon which such action is based and which is known or through the use of reasonable diligence should have been known to him.”

Petitioner Wells Fargo Bank is administrator of the estate of Dr. Hal C. Holland. It is named as one of several defendants in a medical malpractice action filed by Robert T. Fisher. In the trial court Wells Fargo moved for a partial summary judgment, contending that Fisher’s medical malpractice claim was partially barred by the statute of limitations. The trial court denied the motion. In the interest of judicial economy we issued an alternative writ of mandate to review the trial court’s…