Brumley vs. FDCC Asbestos Case Discussion: Barrington v. A.H. Robins Co. and Relation Back Doctrine

Read the discussion of the relation back doctrine in the Barrington case. This case is discussed in the appellate decision in Brumley, et. al vs. FDCC California, Inc. In this decedent asbestos cancer case, the plaintiffs appeal the lower court’s decision on the wrongful death claim filed on behalf of the widow and children and the widow’s loss of consortium.

We agree with plaintiff that the reasoning of Barrington requires us to apply the relation-back doctrine in the context of section 583.310. While we recognize, as defendants argue, that section 583.310 is a different statute from former section 581a, the rationale for the Barrington decision applies equally to section 583.310. The fundamental basis for the court’s decision was that the “nature and purpose of section 581a and the statute of limitations, after all, are virtually identical.” (Barrington, supra, 39 Cal.3d at p. 152.) In its subsequent discussion, the court actually cited the predecessor of current section 583.310, former section 583, along with former section 581a, in its discussion of statutes that have a “virtually identical” nature and purpose as statutes of limitation. Nor was Barrington the first to observe that the five-year rule is similar in purpose to a statute of limitations. In General Motors, supra, 65 Cal.2d at page 91, the Supreme Court noted, “The purposes served by [former section 583] are somewhat analogous to those underlying statutes of limitation. Both types of statutes promote the trial of cases before evidence is lost, destroyed, or the memory of witnesses becomes dimmed. The statutes also protect defendants from being subjected to the annoyance of an unmeritorious action remaining undecided for an indefinite period of time.” The five-year rule, the three-year rule, and statutes of limitation all share the same fundamental purpose of ensuring that claims are brought to trial within a reasonable period of time; the three- and five-year rules operate after the complaint is filed, while statutes of limitation operate prior to filing. (Barrington, at p. 152.) If, as the Supreme Court directed in Barrington, the relation-back doctrine should be applied to section 583.210 for that reason, it should be applied to section 583.310 as well.

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