Javor

Plaintiff is a licensed general building contractor. The State of California erroneously concluded that one of his employees had been injured on the job and that he did not have workers’ compensation insurance at the time. The state paid benefits to the injured worker and recorded a lien against plaintiff’s residence.

Four years after the lien was recorded, plaintiff retained counsel, pursued administrative remedies, and prevailed. The state cancelled the lien.

Thereafter, plaintiff filed this action, alleging a federal civil rights claim ( 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ) and several state law claims. The trial court found that the federal claim was barred by the statute of limitations and that, on the state claims, the defendants were immune from suit (Gov. Code, § 821.6).

The principal question on appeal is whether the limitations period on the federal claim was tolled while plaintiff pursued state remedies under the California Government Claims Act (Gov. Code, § 810 et seq.). We conclude that state “notice of claim” statutes, like the California Government Claims Act, do not toll the time within which to file a federal civil rights claim. We affirm.

I

Background

On May 14,…