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Cloud v. Northrop Grumman Corp.11/12/1998
was filed by a party who lacked standing, Klopstock was not cited in Coats. Against the backdrop of the Klopstock line of authority, which holds that Code of Civil Procedure section 473 must be liberally applied to permit amendment to substitute a plaintiff with standing for one who lacks standing, the result in Coats can only be explained by the lack of citation to Klopstock and the peculiar facts of Coats.
In Coats, the mother of a decedent sued under then Probate Code section 573, which allowed causes of action to be brought on behalf of a decedent's estate by the decedent's "personal representative," defined as an administrator. Plaintiff specifically alleged in the original and two amended complaints that she was in fact the administratrix of her son's estate, even though she was not. There was no reason for her to allege that she was the administratrix unless she knew that she needed the status of administratrix in order to pursue the estate's claims. Nevertheless, she did not actually become the administratrix until the litigation was nearly five years old, and then only as a belated response to two years' worth of motions to compel production of decedent's medical records (which required the authorization of the duly appointed administratrix), and two years' worth of court orders to provide that authorization and, eventually, to furnish proof of appointment as administratrix. (Coats, supra, 215 Cal.App.3d at pp. 964-965.)
The trial court "deemed" the action to have been filed as of the date of the administratrix appointment nearly six years after the decedent' injuries. (Coats, supra, 215 Cal.App.3d at p. 965.) Upon receiving the benefit of this "deeming," defendant amended its answer to plead a statute of limitations defense and then moved for judgment on the pleadings. So far as the Coats opinion reveals, plaintiff did not move for leave to amend to substitute the newly appointed administratrix as the real party in interest. The trial court granted the motion for judgment on the pleadings. In the course of its rulings, the trial court admonished counsel for the plaintiff: "I think you are a little fast and loose with some representations to the court last time, Counsel. When this was in before, there were representations that she was the administrator. At the time you must have filed the petition for appointment of her as an administrator." (Id. at p. 965, fn. 3.)
On appeal, the court noted that appellant admitted she was not the administratrix when she filed suit The court stated: "We are presented with the novel question: May the "relation back" doctrine be applied to confer standing on a plaintiff who knowingly lacked it when suit initially was filed? We answer in the negative." (Coats, supra, 215 Cal.App.3d at p. 967, emphasis added.)
The Coats court summarized "what this case is not," stating: "In short, it does not present us with an appellant who, in blameless good faith, believed she was the administratrix of decedent's estate when the initial complaint was filed." The court noted that it was not a "traditional `relation back' case, where the doctrine was applied to . . . protect the rights of a plaintiff who had standing to sue when the initial complaint was filed, but in a different capacity." (Coats, supra, 215 Cal.App.3d at pp. 967-968.) The court concluded: "Here, appellant knew, or most certainly should have known, that she was not the administratrix of decedent's estate, although she had alleged in three complaints that she was the administratrix and which she, through counsel, had represented to the court on numerous occasions. . . . She was not [the administratrix]; and there are no facts in the record which indicate she made any good faith eff
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