Green

Plaintiff brought an independent action on a judgment after he failed to timely renew it. The trial court ruled for defendant after it found that plaintiff’s judgment had become unenforceable because he failed to timely renew it and therefore it could no longer provide the basis for an action. On appeal, plaintiff asserts that he was entitled to judgment because he was not seeking to renew or “enforce” his judgment but was instead bringing a new action which, when the tolling provisions of Code of Civil Procedure section 351 were taken into account, was commenced timely prior to the expiration of the limitations period for actions on judgments. For the reasons expressed below, we reverse.

Facts

On May 10, 1977, plaintiff obtained an interest-bearing money judgment for $150,290.64 against defendant in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Plaintiff subsequently received $2,000 in partial satisfaction of that judgment. Defendant has been absent from the state and the country since plaintiff obtained the original judgment and remains so. In 1987 plaintiff obtained a renewal of the judgment. The renewal was later vacated apparently because the application for renewal had not…