Edd King v. National General Insurance Company

Background

In a December 22, 2022 discovery letter, the plaintiffs asked to obtain discovery reaching back to January 1, 2008. At a February 9, 2023 hearing, the court ordered the plaintiffs to file a brief supporting their position that the liability period in this putative class action should extend to 2008. The plaintiffs filed a motion asking the court to apply the discovery rule, and the defendants opposed it.

Legal standard

The court explained that a claim generally accrues when the last required element of the claim occurs. The discovery rule is an exception that postpones accrual until the plaintiff discovers, or has reason to discover, the cause of action.

Analysis

The court noted that no party argued the plaintiffs’ claims would be barred without applying the discovery rule. The defendants acknowledged that the plaintiffs filed their complaint on January 22, 2015, and timely asserted claims subject to a four-year statute of limitations.

The court also found that the plaintiffs had not explained the discovery rule’s significance to the proposed class’s temporal scope. They cited no case discussing how the discovery rule affects the potential time period of a class action and submitted no facts or evidence concerning potential class members. In reply, the plaintiffs argued that a reasonable class member would not have discovered a claim against National General before the case was filed and that whether the discovery rule applied presented common questions for a classwide trial. The court disagreed, stating that the plaintiffs had not made the showing required by the earlier order.

Disposition

The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion to apply the discovery rule. The order did not extend the case’s liability period back to 2008. Chief Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu signed the order.