Alvidrez

INTRODUCTION

In March 1994, Lamberto Castillo shot and killed Kenny Sommer and Chen Blanchard in downtown Huntington Beach. Lamberto was not arrested and charged until April 2017 and, in November 2019 he pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter. In 2019, Sommer’s mother, plaintiff Alice Alvidrez, sued Lamberto Castillo and his wife Meredith Castillo under several theories for 1 the wrongful death of Sommer. Alvidrez alleged that Meredith had a duty to protect Sommer by virtue of her ability to control Lamberto and had aided and abetted, and conspired with, Lamberto to kill Sommer. The trial court granted Meredith’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds of lack of evidence sufficient to establish a duty of care and to support allegations that Meredith had aided and abetted and conspired with Lamberto. We affirm the judgment but on a different ground raised by Meredith’s motion for summary judgment: We conclude the undisputed facts establish the claims against Meredith are time-barred under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.

FACTS

On March 31, 1994, as Lamberto and Meredith were walking through downtown Huntington Beach, they saw two men (Sommer and…