United States · California Code of Civil Procedure
What is California’s ordinary property injury limitation?
CCP 338(b) and (c)(1) state three years for the identified real-property and personal-property actions. Stolen significant objects have distinct branches.
- Period
- 3 years for the disclosed component
- Trigger
- The legally established accrual date for the particular property action
- Rule
- CCP 338(b)-(c)(1)
Official current section reviewed. (Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 257, Sec. 2. (AB 2867) Effective September 16, 2024.)
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Which event starts this CCP 338(b)-(c)(1) inquiry?
The legally established accrual date for the particular property action
Identify real property or goods and chattels and the actual cause of action. An estimated repair date does not itself establish accrual.
Responsible actor. The claimant commencing the identified real- or personal-property action. Use legally established accrual for ordinary trespass, real-property injury or subsection (c)(1) goods or chattels claims, outside special recovery and construction branches. Only the disclosed component is supported. Additional actual closures, altered orders and excluded service methods require separate review.
CCP 338(b)-(c)(1)How is this particular California component counted?
- Use legally established accrual for ordinary trespass, real-property injury or subsection (c)(1) goods or chattels claims, outside special recovery and construction branches. Only the disclosed component is supported. Additional actual closures, altered orders and excluded service methods require separate review.
- Count 3 calendar years from the legally established event to the corresponding anniversary. Check the final holiday under CCP 12a. The calculator does not establish accrual, classify the claim or resolve tolling.
- Check the actual judicial holidays, closures and statutory or court-ordered qualifications.
- Commence the identified property action within the applicable period and preserve the damage and accrual evidence. Review any separate construction repose limit.
CCP 12 excludes the triggering day for ordinary day periods. CCP 12a supplies the final judicial-holiday adjustment, including Saturdays and the CCP 135 holidays. CCP 12b addresses qualifying whole-day office closures. Court-day periods exclude intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays. Calendar-day periods include intermediate closed days. Rule 1.11 supplies Friday observance of a Saturday judicial holiday and Monday observance of a Sunday judicial holiday. The calendar includes Lincoln Day, March 31, Juneteenth, Native American Day and Thanksgiving Friday. It excludes Columbus Day and Good Friday as ordinary full judicial holidays. The observed New Year holiday on December 31, 2027 is confirmed in the county schedule. Actual additional closures require separate evidence.
These base components do not add mail, electronic, fax, express or overnight service time. CCP 1013 and 1010.6 identify eligible additions, service conditions and express exceptions. CCP 1005 supplies its own motion-delivery provisions and excludes CCP 1013 for its identified notices. New-trial and CCP 663a intention-notice filings do not receive the stated mail or electronic additions. Establish the actual service method and governing procedure before applying any addition. A summons-service completion event is not determined by the general document-service addition.
The official sections were reviewed, including the retained 2026 and operative-2027 CCP 473 and 415.20 editions. Publication coverage for day and court-day components begins January 1, 2026, or a later expressly stated section effective date. Year components begin no earlier than January 1, 2021, or the section’s later stated effective date, and assume the current reviewed branch applies. These are software coverage boundaries, not findings that an actual act is late. Displayed final dates are confined to the independently reviewed 2026 and 2027 judicial calendar. Closed backward base boundaries and closed minimum-deposition boundaries receive no computed or paid date because their exact adjustment is not implemented. Earlier editions, emergency measures, tolling, different service methods and actual additional closures require separate review.
CCP 12, exclusion of the first dayWhat does an independently derived example show?
Fictitious example
Use legally established accrual for ordinary trespass, real-property injury or subsection (c)(1) goods or chattels claims, outside special recovery and construction branches. Only the disclosed component is supported. Additional actual closures, altered orders and excluded service methods require separate review. Established accrual or service for the disclosed ordinary component, without tolling or another controlling period.
| Step | What is counted | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Established event | The legally established accrual date for the particular property action | October 1, 2024 |
| Disclosed component boundary | 3 years for the disclosed component | October 1, 2027 |
Fictitious facts within the stated coverage. This is the disclosed component, not a determination of legal accrual, effective service, court action or entitlement. No tolling, different service addition, altered order or additional closure is assumed. Closed unsupported base branches receive no computed date.
Try these dates in the calculatorWhich qualifications change this procedure?
- Significant stolen objects
- Subsection (c)(2) has discovery-of-whereabouts language for the identified historically, scientifically, artistically or interpretively significant stolen article.
- Construction claims
- CCP 337.1 and 337.15 impose separate patent and latent construction boundaries and qualifications. Do not treat three years as their complete comparison.
- Service methods and distinct statutory additions
- These base components do not add mail, electronic, fax, express or overnight service time. CCP 1013 and 1010.6 identify eligible additions, service conditions and express exceptions. CCP 1005 supplies its own motion-delivery provisions and excludes CCP 1013 for its identified notices. New-trial and CCP 663a intention-notice filings do not receive the stated mail or electronic additions. Establish the actual service method and governing procedure before applying any addition. A summons-service completion event is not determined by the general document-service addition.
- Edition and calendar coverage
- The official sections were reviewed, including the retained 2026 and operative-2027 CCP 473 and 415.20 editions. Publication coverage for day and court-day components begins January 1, 2026, or a later expressly stated section effective date. Year components begin no earlier than January 1, 2021, or the section’s later stated effective date, and assume the current reviewed branch applies. These are software coverage boundaries, not findings that an actual act is late. Displayed final dates are confined to the independently reviewed 2026 and 2027 judicial calendar. Closed backward base boundaries and closed minimum-deposition boundaries receive no computed or paid date because their exact adjustment is not implemented. Earlier editions, emergency measures, tolling, different service methods and actual additional closures require separate review.
- Use legally established accrual for ordinary trespass, real-property injury or subsection (c)(1) goods or chattels claims, outside special recovery and construction branches. Only the disclosed component is supported. Additional actual closures, altered orders and excluded service methods require separate review.
- The base calculation does not resolve the excluded comparisons or establish that the responsible actor completed the required act.
Which acts and evidence must be preserved?
Questions about CCP 338(b)-(c)(1)
What is California’s ordinary property injury limitation?
Do real and personal property use the same subsection?
No. Subsection (b) addresses real property; subsection (c)(1) addresses the identified goods and chattels actions.
CCP 338(b)-(c)(1)Does this ordinary preset decide stolen-art recovery?
No. The specific discovery and recovery provisions in subsection (c) require separate review.
CCP 338(c)Can construction completion create another limit?
Yes. The specified construction provisions use substantial completion and their own conditions.
CCP 337.15(a),(g)Official California sources and edition review
Provisions used (16)
| Provision | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CCP 338(b)-(c)(1) | The particular actor, event, period and required act |
| CCP 338(c)(2) | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 337.15 | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 338(b)-(c)(1) | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 338(c) | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 337.15(a),(g) | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 12, exclusion of the first day | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 12a, final judicial holidays | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 12b, actual whole-day office closures | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 12c, backward hearing and service additions | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 135, judicial holidays and exclusions | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| California judicial holiday schedule | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1.11 | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| Superior Court of San Bernardino holiday schedule | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 1013, service additions and exceptions | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |
| CCP 1010.6, electronic service and filing | The separately identified counting, filing, holiday or procedural qualification |