Short answer: missing the six-month deadline to present a government claim does not always end state-law claims against the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, or another California public entity. Government Code section 911.4 allows a written application for leave to present a late claim, made within a reasonable time and no later than one year after the claim accrued. If the entity denies the application or does not act on it, section 946.6 allows a petition to the superior court for relief. Each step has its own short deadline.
Step one: an application to the entity
Government Code section 911.4(a) provides that when a claim governed by the six-month deadline in section 911.2 is not presented on time, "a written application may be made to the public entity for leave to present that claim."
Section 911.4(b) sets three requirements. The application must be presented "within a reasonable time not to exceed one year after the accrual of the cause of action." It must "state the reason for the delay in presenting the claim." And the proposed claim "shall be attached to the application." The proposed claim is the claim itself, with the contents section 910 requires, described in How to File a Government Claim Against the City or County of Los Angeles After Police Misconduct.
The year is an outer limit; the statute also requires a reasonable time. Under section 901, a claim accrues when the cause of action would accrue under the ordinary statute of limitations, in most police cases the date of the incident. Section 911.4(c) leaves a few periods out of the one-year count, such as time the injured person was mentally incapacitated with no guardian or conservator. Time spent as a minor generally counts.
Under section 915, the application goes to the entity the same way a claim does: delivered or mailed to the entity's clerk, or submitted electronically where the entity has authorized it. The City and County claim offices are listed in the government claim guide.
If a late claim arrives without an application
Section 911.3 allows the entity, within 45 days, to return a late claim that came without an application, using a notice whose wording the statute prescribes. The notice tells the claimant that the "only recourse at this time is to apply without delay" for leave to present a late claim. Under section 911.3(b), the entity's defense that the claim was late "is waived by failure to give the notice" within 45 days, unless the claim gave no address for the claimant or for notices.
When the entity must grant the application
Under section 911.6(a), the entity's board must "grant or deny the application within 45 days after it is presented." The claimant and the board may extend that period by a written agreement made before it runs out. Section 911.6(b) lists the situations in which the board "shall grant the application":
- The claim was late "through mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect," and the entity was not prejudiced in its defense by the delay.
- The injured person was a minor during all of the six months, or during part of it if the application is presented within six months after turning 18 or a year after accrual, whichever comes first.
- The injured person was physically or mentally incapacitated during all or part of the six months and for that reason did not present a claim. For incapacity during only part of the period, the application must come within six months after it ended or a year after accrual, whichever comes first.
- The injured person died before the six months ran out.
If the board grants the application, section 912.2 treats the claim as presented on the day leave is granted. The ordinary process follows: 45 days for the board to act on the claim under section 912.4, then the deadlines to sue in section 945.6.
Silence counts as a denial
If the board does nothing, section 911.6(c) provides that the application "shall be deemed to have been denied on the 45th day," or on the last day of any agreed extension.
When a board denies an application, section 911.8 requires written notice with a warning that a court petition must be filed "within six (6) months from the date your application for leave to present a late claim was denied." But in J.M. v. Huntington Beach Union High School Dist. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 648, the California Supreme Court held that no written notice is required when an application is denied by inaction. The six months then run from the 45th day, whether or not anyone is told.
Step two: a petition to the superior court
Section 946.6(a) allows a petition to the court "for an order relieving the petitioner from Section 945.4," the section that bars a suit for money or damages until a claim has been presented and acted on or deemed rejected. It is filed in a superior court that would be a proper court for a lawsuit on the claim.
Under section 946.6(b), the petition must show that the application was made and denied or deemed denied, why the claim was not presented within six months, and the information section 910 requires in a claim. It "shall be filed within six months after the application to the board is denied or deemed to be denied," and section 946.6(d) requires serving it on the entity before the hearing.
Section 946.6(c) provides that the court "shall relieve the petitioner" if the application was made within a reasonable time, no later than the one-year limit, was denied or deemed denied, and one of the grounds listed in section 911.6 applies. On the mistake-or-neglect ground, relief is granted "unless the public entity establishes that it would be prejudiced in the defense of the claim." The court makes "an independent determination" under section 946.6(e). If it grants relief, section 946.6(f) provides that the lawsuit "shall be filed with the court within 30 days thereafter."
How the California Supreme Court has read these rules
In Bettencourt v. Los Rios Community College Dist. (1986) 42 Cal.3d 270, the Court described section 946.6 as a remedial statute and, quoting an earlier decision, said it is intended "to provide relief from technical rules that otherwise provide a trap for the unwary claimant." It added that "any doubts should be resolved in favor of granting relief." To decide whether a mistake was excusable, the Court asked whether "a reasonably prudent person under the same or similar circumstances" might have made the same error, and whether the lawyer was otherwise diligent. There, the Court held excusable a lawyer's mistake of filing a timely claim with the wrong public entity.
J.M. addressed the deadlines. The Court described the six-month period to petition the court as one that "operates as a statute of limitations. It is mandatory, not discretionary," quoting a Court of Appeal decision. Because the petition there came more than six months after the deemed denial, the Court held that "the statutes provide no recourse," and it rejected arguments for estoppel and equitable tolling on those facts.
The deadlines in order
- Six months after the claim accrues: the claim itself (section 911.2).
- Within a reasonable time, and no later than one year after accrual: the application for leave to present a late claim (section 911.4).
- 45 days after the application is presented: the board grants or denies it, or it is deemed denied (section 911.6).
- Six months after a denial or deemed denial: the petition to the superior court (section 946.6(b)).
- 30 days after an order granting relief: the lawsuit (section 946.6(f)).
A pending criminal case does not extend the six-month claim deadline: section 945.3 states that it "shall not extend the time within which a claim is required to be presented pursuant to Section 911.2."
Federal claims are not part of this process
The late-claim procedure applies to state-law claims for money or damages. Federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 do not require a government claim: in Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988), the United States Supreme Court held that a state notice-of-claim statute is preempted when a section 1983 action is brought in state court. Federal claims have their own deadline, explained in What Are the Deadlines to Sue Police in California?
Questions about a specific situation can go through the contact form.
Sources
- Government Code section 901 (date of accrual for claim deadlines)
- Government Code section 910 (contents of a claim)
- Government Code section 911.2 (six-month claim deadline)
- Government Code section 911.3 (return of a late claim; waiver if no notice within 45 days)
- Government Code section 911.4 (application for leave to present a late claim; one-year limit)
- Government Code section 911.6 (grounds for granting the application; deemed denial after 45 days)
- Government Code section 911.8 (notice and warning when an application is denied)
- Government Code section 912.2 (claim deemed presented when leave is granted)
- Government Code section 912.4 (45 days for the board to act on a claim)
- Government Code section 915 (how claims and late-claim applications are presented)
- Government Code section 945.3 (pending criminal charges do not extend the claim deadline)
- Government Code section 945.4 (no suit until a claim is presented and acted on)
- Government Code section 945.6 (time to sue after a claim is rejected)
- Government Code section 946.6 (petition to the court for relief from the claim requirement)
- J.M. v. Huntington Beach Union High School Dist. (2017) 2 Cal.5th 648 (deemed denial without notice; six-month petition deadline)
- Bettencourt v. Los Rios Community College Dist. (1986) 42 Cal.3d 270 (section 946.6 as a remedial statute; excusable neglect)
- Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131 (1988) (state notice-of-claim statutes and section 1983 actions)