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Samuels v. Mix12/30/1999
0.6(a) to the common law discovery rule, defendant relies heavily on a remark we made in Laird v. Blacker (1992) 2 Cal.4th 606 (Laird). In Laird, we held that section 340.6(a)'s one-year-from-discovery limitation period is not tolled during the time the malpractice plaintiff appeals an underlying action, but, rather, commences when he or she suffers an adverse judgment or dismissal in the underlying action. (Laird, supra, at p. 609.) In the course of reaching that conclusion, we remarked that "when the Legislature adopted section 340.6 in 1977, it implicitly rejected the term `irremediable damage' and codified the discovery rule of Neel . . . and Budd v. Nixen (1971) 6 Cal.3d 195, 198 . . . . These cases hold that a cause of action for legal malpractice accrues when the client discovers or should discover the facts essential to the malpractice claim, and suffers appreciable and actual harm from the malpractice. Discovery of any appreciable and actual harm from the attorney's negligent conduct establishes a cause of action and begins the running of the limitations period." (Laird, supra, at p. 611, citing Budd v. Nixen (1971) 6 Cal.3d 195, 201 (Budd).)
Defendant makes too much of our remark in Laird. In context, its import is simply that, under the statute and mentioned cases, "a cause of action for legal malpractice accrues when the client discovers or should discover the facts essential to the malpractice claim, and suffers appreciable and actual harm from the malpractice" (Laird, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 611; see also International Engine Parts, Inc. v. Feddersen & Co. (1995) 9 Cal.4th 606, 615), an observation not bearing on the question presented here. Certainly the remark is not authority for the sweeping notion that all common law appendages to the discovery rule are automatically pertinent under section 340.6. To the contrary, we quite recently clarified that " section 340.6 is not simply a mechanical transcription of the holdings in Neel . . . and Budd; the Legislature plainly intended to address additional concerns when it established a separate statute of limitations for legal malpractice actions." (Jordache, supra, 18 Cal.4th at p. 748.)
In Jordache, as in Laird, we addressed the meaning of the phrase "actual injury" found in section 340.6(a)'s tolling provisions. (ยง 340.6, subd. (a)(1).) We held the statute "will not toll the limitations period once the client can plead damages that could establish a cause of action for legal malpractice." (Jordache, supra, 18 Cal.4th at p. 743.) In so holding, we again remarked (as we had in Laird) that "the Legislature intended to codify" Budd in section 340.6 (Jordache, supra, at p. 743, citing Laird, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 611). We clarified, however, that we meant thereby only "the actual injury tolling provision derived from the holding in Budd" (Jordache, supra, at p. 748, fn. omitted) and again acknowledged that the Legislature had "intended to address additional concerns [beyond those addressed in Neel and Budd] when it established a separate statute of limitations for legal malpractice actions" (ibid.). In fact, we noted, " n section 340.6, the Legislature established a detailed, explicit, and exclusive scheme for commencing and tolling the legal malpractice limitations periods." (Jordache, supra, at p. 764.)
Contrary to the expansive reading defendant would give the Laird dictum, we believe that, in enacting section 340.6, the Legislature clearly intended more than merely to codify the common law discovery rule, because section 340.6(a), even absent discovery, absolutely cuts off actions after a specified period ("four years from the date of the wrongful act or omission"); the common law discovery rule, as discussed, includes no
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