PRETRIAL ADJUDICATION
...Pleading
......Amendments
.........Relation Back
 14 Cards On This Topic:
  • Complaint, amended to charge Doe with new cause of action arising from different facts, need not be served within 3 yrs of original; SOL commences on filing amended, not original, complaint.
  • Amended complaint relates back to original, avoiding SOL as bar against named parties substituted for Does, if same general set of facts and same accident & injuries.
  • Amended complaint related back to original for SOL purposes where both complaints sought recovery on same general set of facts.
  • Relation-back doctrine did not apply to wrongful death claim in amended complaint adding widow, but court did not err in adding her to timely filed survivor C/A—propriety of the addition not resolvable at pleading stage.
  • As original complaints re Northridge quake damage were devoid of factual allegations, 1st amended complaints did not relate back to original complaints, were time-barred and not revived by CCP 340.9.
  • Trial court should have applied relation back doctrine to non-contract causes of action in first amended complaint where P merely corrected name of defendant.
  • As P did not use readily available information to refresh memory as to later named D's identity, she could not use CCP 474 relation back to amend complaint after SOL had run.
  • Complaint amended to substitute true Ds for Does relates back to original complaint so that action not time-barred.
  • Under relation back, SOL does not bar amended complaint alleging new causes of action if it rests on same facts as original complaint and refers to same accident & injuries.
  • Unless complaint names Doe and states valid claim against Doe, cannot amend to add after SOL has run. Relation back applies where Doe later identified and substituted in amended complaint.
  • P cannot amend after SOL has run to substitute D for fictitious D in original complaint, where P knew of D’s identity when original complaint filed but failed to join D as party.
  • Standard for determining whether P may plead Doe D and have 3 yrs. within which to identify and serve unknown D is that lack of knowledge be real and not feigned.
  • Amended complaint filed after SOL runs, naming Ds in place of Does, will relate back, avoiding bar of SOL, if instrumentality, injuries, and accident are same in both complaints.
  • Amended complaint filed after running of SOL cannot relate back where it asserts new theory of liability on entirely different set of facts.


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