Addison v. State

578 P.2d 941 (1978)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P whose business was the sale of cars at auction, was investigated by state and county officials for fraudulent practices. On March 11, 1975, DMV officers and the deputy district attorney of Santa Clara allegedly entered Ps’ place of business in San Jose with a search warrant and seized numerous records. Ds publicized this raid and made available to the news media the contents of the warrant and supporting affidavits. Ps’ assert that Ds’ actions were improper and constituted defamation, abuse of process, and conversion. Ps then filed timely damage claims under the Tort Claims Act, and each claim was rejected with the admonition that under section 913 they had only six months from the dismissals to file a court action on these claims. Three and one-half months later (September 11, 1975), Ps filed a complaint in District Court alleging both a federal civil rights violation and under pendent jurisdiction, the state law causes of action for defamation, conversion, and abuse of process for which claims had been filed and rejected. On November 26, 1975, Ds moved to dismiss the federal action for lack of jurisdiction. Ps, anticipating an adverse ruling, then filed their complaint in state court on February 9, 1976. The federal court dismissed the action on February 17, 1976, after determining that a federal civil rights action would not lie against public entities. The federal court then dismissed the state causes of action without prejudice. Ds then moved to dismiss the state actions, as they were not filed within the six months as was required under the Act. That motion was granted. Ps appealed.