Western Riverside Council of Governments v. McKiernan CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

This appeal involves two consolidated actions. In the first, the City of Beaumont (City) filed a third amended cross- complaint alleging Kieran McKiernan and Torcal, LLC (Torcal), fraudulently caused hundreds of false invoices to be submitted to the City for payment from 2012 to early 2016. In the second, Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG), as the assignee of the City, filed a third amended complaint alleging the same. The trial court sustained demurrers to the third amended cross-complaint and the third amended complaint, ruling the claims were barred by the statute of limitations. We conclude the pleadings adequately allege McKiernan and Torcal were properly substituted in for fictitiously named Roes and Does. Accepting the allegations as true, as we must on demurrer, the claims (with one exception) relate back to the filing of the original cross-complaint and complaint in June 2017.

2 Except for the claims for conflict of interest, we cannot conclusively determine from the face of the pleadings that the claims are barred by the statute of limitations. We reverse the judgment of dismissal and remand with directions to vacate the order sustaining…