Morales

The plaintiffs allege in this action that police perjury and other misconduct occurring in a previous civil rights lawsuit caused them to lose that case, thus depriving them of their due process right of access to the courts. This issue today concerns the statute of limitations. When does such a cause of action accrue? Does the statute of limitations begin to run when the plaintiffs lose their case in the trial court and have judgment entered against them? Or is it upon the unsuccessful exhaustion of all appeals of that judgment? We hold that it is the former, i.e., when a final judgment is entered in the trial court. We also hold, however, that under California law, the statute of limitations is tolled from the date of the fifing of the notice of appeal until the date the appeal becomes final.

I. Background

A. The Medrano Case

The Medranos filed their first lawsuit in federal court alleging denial of their federal civil rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . These claims centered around plaintiffs’ allegations that Los Angeles Police Department officers wrongfully killed their son, Ruben. After the case bounced from the district court to this court and eventually to state…