Plaintiff customer appealed an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County (California), which dismissed plaintiff’s action for breach of contract, misrepresentation, and fraud on the ground plaintiff failed to serve defendants, an equipment supplier and equipment installer with summons and complaint within the three-year time period prescribed by Cal. Civ. Proc. Code §§ 583.210 and 583.250.
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Overview
Plaintiff customer filed suit against defendant corporations. Five years later, plaintiff amended its complaint and added two defendants, including one individual. The later-added defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that they had not been served within three years after the action was commenced pursuant to Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 583.210. The trial court granted the motion and plaintiff appealed, contending that the time bar did not apply because no new defendants had been added because the initial defendants were merely alter egos of defendant individual. The court reversed, holding that as to defendants who were first named in an amended complaint and alleged to be the alter egos of a defendant named in the original complaint, the action was commenced at the time the amended complaint was filed first naming them as defendants. The court further held that an alter ego defendant added as a new defendant in an amended complaint had to be served with the amended complaint and summons thereon within three years after the filing of the amended complaint first naming such defendant. The later-added defendants in this case were timely served.
Outcome
The court reversed the judgment dismissing later-added defendants, an individual and a corporation, because they were timely served within three years after the filing of the amended complaint.
