 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Samuels v. Mix12/30/1999
(Fukuda v. City of Angels, supra, 20 Cal.4th at p. 820) when defendants rely on section 340.6(a) would be either proper or desirable. Rather, in this case, as in the past, we shall "strictly follow the statute that governs the accrual and limitation of claims for attorney malpractice" (Wiley v. County of San Diego (1998) 19 Cal.4th 532, 546 (conc. opn. of Werdegar, J.), citing ยง 340.6; see Steketee v. Lintz, Williams & Rothberg (1985) 38 Cal.3d 46, 56 [observing that statutes of limitations " `are technical defenses which should be strictly construed to avoid the forfeiture of a plaintiff's rights' "]) and uphold the Court of Appeal's finding of instructional error.
The petition for review presents only the narrow legal question whether the trial court correctly allocated the burden of proof with respect to the one-year-from-discovery provision of section 340.6(a). In their briefing on the merits before this court, the parties have confined themselves to that issue, not disputing that the record contains conflicting evidence on the determinative issue of discovery, or the Court of Appeal's conclusion that the trial court's erroneous instructions must be considered prejudicial, since it is reasonably likely the jury verdict was based on them. Accordingly, we need not consider the question of prejudice here. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 28(e)(2); People v. Weiss (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1073, 1076-1077.)
We nevertheless find no grounds for disagreeing with the Court of Appeal's conclusion respecting prejudice, which was based on a detailed examination of the conflicting trial testimony about Samuel's discovery of the underlying facts. Among other things, the Court of Appeal noted that the parties disputed whether, after her October 1991 meeting with attorney Hildre, plaintiff Samuels believed that defendant Mix had misrepresented Showa Denko's true financial condition. The court also noted that, when cross-examined about apparent discrepancies between her trial and deposition testimony bearing on when she first suspected wrongdoing by Mix, Samuels testified to suffering from imprecise memory and argued that her deposition testimony referred not to knowledge of defendant's wrongdoing in negotiating settlement but, rather, simply to her general disillusionment with defendant (based on his assertedly unauthorized use of a courier and discussing with others the amount of the settlement after stating it was confidential).
The Court of Appeal also appreciated that " `few instructions are of greater importance than that which informs the jury which party bears the burden of proof on the issues in dispute.' " (Bernal v. Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Corp. (1990) 221 Cal.App.3d 1326, 1335.) Nothing in the record indicates the erroneous instructions were mitigated or remedied by other instructions. (See Soule v. General Motors Corp. (1994) 8 Cal.4th 548, 570-571.)
Disposition
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed.
WE CONCUR:
GEORGE, C.J.
MOSK, J.
KENNARD, J.
CHIN, J.
BROWN, J.
DISSENTING OPINION BY BAXTER, J.
I respectfully dissent.
Code of Civil Procedure section 340.6, subdivision (a) (section 340.6(a)) provides that unless otherwise "tolled," the statute of limitations for legal malpractice expires one year after the client's actual or constructive discovery of the facts of the claim, or four years after the attorney's wrongful act or omission, whichever occurs first. The majority conclude that for purposes of the one-year period, the defendant attorney bears the burden of proving when the plainti
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 California Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|