Geneva Towers Ltd. Partnership v. City & County of San Francisco

In this case, we consider what statute of limitations applies when a county or city fails to act upon a claim for refund of property taxes within six months and the taxpayer elects under Revenue and Taxation Code section 5141, subdivision (b) to “consider the claim rejected and bring an action” in superior court. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the applicable statute of limitations is the six-month period set forth in Revenue and Taxation Code section 5141, subdivision (a), rather than the general four-year statute of limitations set forth in Code of Civil Procedure section 343 applied by the Court of Appeal.

*772 We also consider when the applicable statute of limitations begins to run. The Court of Appeal held that the limitations period begins to run on the first day the taxpayer could consider the claim rejected, i.e., six months after the claim for refund was filed. We disagree. As explained below, the limitations period begins to run when the county or city rejects the claim for refund in whole or in part or, if the public entity fails to act within six months, when the claimant elects to consider the claim rejected and bring an action for a tax…