Taking sides in a decades-long appellate debate, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division Two, ruled June 28 that trial courts can consider whether a public entity claim is valid before a suit is filed.
The ruling disagreed with a set of appellate law that says arguments about a claim’s validity may be raised only after the lawsuit begins.
“We see no sound reason why a petitioner should not be able to raise actual compliance in a Section 946.6 petition, or why the adjudicating court should be precluded from deciding that a submitted claim was compliant if there are no disputed issues of fact that need to be left for a jury’s
