Property Damage Lawsuits and California's Three-Year Deadline

Attorney Answer

A property damage claim in California runs on a longer clock than an injury claim — three years, not two. So a suit filed a couple of years after a crash is not automatically too late. Whether this one is timely turns on the exact filing date and on facts that can move the deadline, and a deadline defense does not apply itself. Someone has to raise it.

The governing period is in Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1), which gives three years for an action for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels. Damage to a vehicle is damage to goods, so it runs on that three-year period rather than the two-year period people usually have in mind. That two-year period, in Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, covers actions for injury to or the death of an individual. If any part of the claim against you is for someone's bodily injury rather than property, it sits on the shorter clock — and the answer to "is it timely" can be different for the two halves of the same lawsuit.

A few things can extend a period. Code Civ. Proc. § 352(a) suspends the running of the time while a person entitled to bring the action was under the age of majority or lacked the legal capacity to make decisions. There are other circumstances that affect when a period starts or stops running, and they are exactly the kind of detail a lawyer checks against the court file rather than a page like this one.

Separately from timing, the claimant still has to prove the case. Civil Code § 1714(a) provides: "Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself." They have to show you failed to use ordinary care and that it caused the damage they are claiming.

One practical note. Suits that arrive well after a crash are often brought by the other driver's insurer, which paid its own customer and is now pursuing you for what it paid. That changes who is across the table but not what has to be proven.

Check your coverage, too. For an accident in 2020, Vehicle Code § 16056(a) set the minimum liability policy at $15,000 per person, $30,000 per accident and $5,000 for property damage. Vehicle repair costs can exceed a $5,000 property damage limit easily, and anything above the limit is yours.

What you can do

1. Send everything you have received to your auto insurer today, in writing, and keep proof you sent it. Property damage claims are ordinarily what your liability coverage is for, and policies impose their own prompt-notice duties.

2. Work out whether you were formally served with a summons and complaint or only sent a letter. If you were served, the deadline to respond is short and is set by court rules, and missing it can produce a default judgment. Treat that as urgent.

3. Ask your insurer for your declarations page so you know your property damage limit.

4. Preserve what already exists: the police report number, photos, repair estimates, correspondence, and any payment records. Do not write out a new account of the crash for anyone but your own lawyer.

5. Ask a local attorney to compare the filing date in the court papers against Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1). A limitations defense generally has to be raised properly to do any good — it is not applied automatically by the court.

6. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Vehicle damage runs under Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1)'s three years; a bodily injury claim from the same crash runs under Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1's two years; and Code Civ. Proc. § 352(a) can suspend either where the claimant was a minor or lacked legal capacity. Which period applies, and when it started and stopped, depends on your facts and on the actual filing date in the court file. Have a local attorney check those dates now.