Blegen

Petitioner is the plaintiff in a pending legal malpractice action. Real parties in interest are defendants in that action. Petitioner has filed a petition for writ of mandate to challenge respondent court’s order striking a claim for punitive damages. We issued an alternative writ of mandate to review that order.

Petitioner’s complaint alleges that he retained real parties on October 23, 1973, to represent him in prosecuting a medical malpractice action against Kaiser Foundation Hospital and others. The complaint further alleges that petitioner learned of his injuries on July 13, 1973, but that real parties failed to file a lawsuit on his behalf until July 19, 1974. That suit, in addition to being untimely, was defective in that it failed to allege the date of injury or the date of discovery of injury. A demurrer to the medical malpractice action was filed in 1975, but never heard. The medical malpractice action was dismissed with prejudice in 1979, apparently for failure to prosecute. (Code Civ. Proc., § 583, subd. (a).) Petitioner alleges that had real parties exercised proper care and skill in prosecuting the medical malpractice action, petitioner would have been…