BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 15|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 15
Author: Holden (D)
Amended: 9/1/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 7/7/15
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
[Reconsideration granted on a favorable vote]
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 7/7/15
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Anderson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/14/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Limitation of actions: human rights abuses
SOURCE: International Corporate Accountability Roundtable
DIGEST: This bill extends the existing statute of limitations
for victims of human trafficking to bring a civil action from
seven years, and, in the case of minors, from eight to 10 years
after the plaintiff attains the age of majority. This bill also
creates a 10 year statute of limitation to bring 1) an action
for assault, battery, or both, where the conduct constituting
the assault or battery would also constitute specified acts of
torture, genocide, a war crime, attempted extrajudicial killing,
or crimes against humanity; 2) an action for wrongful death,
where the death arises out of conduct constituting any of the
acts described above, or where the death would constitute an
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extrajudicial killing under the federal Torture Victim
Protection Act of 1991; 3) an action for specified takings of
property in violation of international law; and 4) an action
seeking benefits under an insurance policy where the insurance
claim arises out of any of the conduct described above.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides, under federal law, that any person who engages in
any of the following, whether in time of peace or in time of
war and with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in
substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious
group as such, is guilty of genocide and will be punished as
specified:
Kills members of that group;
Causes serious bodily injury to members of that group;
Causes the permanent impairment of the mental faculties
of members of the group through drugs, torture, or similar
techniques;
Subjects the group to conditions of life intended to
cause the physical destruction of the group in whole or in
part;
Imposes measures intended to prevent births within the
group; or
Transfers by force children of the group to another
group.
1)Provides, under federal law, that whoever, whether inside or
outside the U.S., commits a war crime under certain
circumstances (where the person committing the war crime or
the victim of the war crime is a member of the U.S. Armed
Forces or a national of the U.S.), will be fined or imprisoned
for life or any term of years, or both, and, if death results
to the victim, will also be subject to the penalty of death.
Defines war crimes to include any conduct:
Defined as a grave breach in any of the international
conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any
protocol to such convention to which the U.S. is a party;
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Prohibited under specified articles of the Annex to the
Hague Convention IV, signed 18 October 1907;
Which constitutes a grave breach, as specified, when
committed in the context of and in association with an
armed conflict not of an international character; or
Of a person who willfully kills or causes serious injury
to civilians, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary
to the provisions of the Protocol on Prohibitions or
Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other
Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as
amended on 3 May 1996), when the U.S. is a party to such
Protocol.
1)Provides, under the federal Torture Victim Protection Act of
1991 (TVPA), that an individual who, under actual or apparent
authority or color of law of any foreign nation, subjects an
individual to torture or to extrajudicial killing, as
specified, will be liable for damages to that individual or
that individual's legal representative or to any person who
may be a claimant in a wrongful death action. The TVPA
provides for a 10 year statute of limitations.
2)Provides, under the federal Alien Tort Claims Act, that the
U.S. federal district courts have original jurisdiction of any
civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in
violation of the law of nations or a U.S. treaty.
3)Provides that every person who, with the intent to cause cruel
or extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge,
extortion, persuasion, or for any sadistic purpose, inflicts
great bodily injury, as specified, upon the person of another
is guilty of torture. Provides that the crime of torture
requires no proof that the victim suffered pain.
4)Generally provides that civil actions must be commenced within
applicable statutes of limitations, as specified, without
exception, unless the Legislature prescribes a different
limitation by statute in special cases. Requires, generally
that an action for assault, battery, or injury to, or for the
death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect
of another be brought within two years.
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5)Provides, under Civil Procedure Code Section 361, that when a
cause of action has arisen in another state, or in a foreign
country, and by the laws thereof an action thereon cannot be
maintained against a person by reason of the lapse of time, an
action thereon shall not be maintained against him in
California, except in favor of one who has been a citizen of
California, and who has held the cause of action from the time
it accrued.
6)Authorizes a victim of human trafficking to bring a civil
action for actual damages, compensatory damages, punitive
damages, injunctive relief, any combination of those, or any
other appropriate relief. Requires those actions to be
brought within five years of the date on which the trafficking
victim was freed from the trafficking situation, or if the
victim was a minor when the act of human trafficking against
the victim occurred, within eight years after the date the
plaintiff attains the age of majority.
7)Tolls the running of the statute of limitations for the human
trafficking actions, above, if the person entitled to sue is
under a disability, as specified, at the time the cause of
action accrues. Provides, also, among other things, that the
running of the statute of limitations may be suspended where a
person entitled to sue could not have reasonably discovered
the cause of action due to circumstances resulting from the
trafficking situation, such as psychological trauma, cultural
and linguistic isolation, and the inability to access
services.
This bill:
1)Provides, notwithstanding any other law, the following actions
must be commenced within 10 years:
a) An action for assault, battery, or both, where the
conduct constituting the assault or battery would also
constitute any of the following:
An act of torture, as described under the Penal
Code, as specified;
An act of genocide, as described in applicable
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federal law on genocide;
A war crime, as defined in applicable federal law on
war crimes;
An attempted extrajudicial killing, as defined under
the federal Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991; or
Crimes against humanity, as defined.
b) An action for wrongful death, where the death arises out
of conduct constituting any of the acts described in
paragraph (1), or where the death would constitute an
extrajudicial killing, as defined in the federal TVPA.
c) An action for the taking of property in violation of
international law, in which either of the following apply:
That property, or any property exchanged for such
property, is present in the U.S. in connection with a
commercial activity carried on in the U.S. by a foreign
state; or
That property, or any property exchanged for such
property, is owned or operated by an agency or
instrumentality of a foreign state and that agency or
instrumentality is engaged in a commercial activity in
the U.S.
d) An action seeking benefits under an insurance policy
where the insurance claim arises out of any of the conduct
described in (A) - (C), above.
1)Prohibits an action brought under the above 10 year statutes
of limitations provisions, from being dismissed for failure to
comply with any previously applicable statute of limitations.
2)Provides a narrow exception to Section 361 of the Code of
Civil Procedure (prohibiting an action from being brought in
California against a defendant if the statute of limitations
has lapsed against that defendant in the original state or
country where the cause of action accrued unless the plaintiff
has been a California citizen who has held the cause of action
since it accrued) if all or part of the unlawful act(s) out of
which the action arises occurred in this state.
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3)Provides that a prevailing plaintiff may be awarded reasonable
attorney's fees and litigation costs including, but not
limited to, expert witness fees and expenses as part of the
costs.
4)Specifies that the above provisions shall apply to all actions
commenced concerning an act described by the bill that occurs
on or after January 1, 2016.
5)Provides that the provisions of this bill are severable.
6)Extends the general five year statute of limitation for
victims of human trafficking to seven years, and would extend
the statute of limitations for victims of human trafficking
who are minors from eight years after the plaintiff attains
the age of majority to 10 years after the plaintiff attains
the age of majority. Makes other technical, non-substantive
changes to these provisions.
Background
A statute of limitations is a requirement to commence legal
proceedings (either civil or criminal) within a specific period
of time. Statutes of limitations are tailored to the cause of
action at issue - for example, cases involving injury must be
brought within two years from the date of injury, cases relating
to written contracts must be brought four years from the date
the contract was broken, and, as commonly referenced in the
media, there is no statute of limitations for murder. Although
it may appear unfair to bar actions after the statute of
limitations has elapsed, that limitations period serves
important policy goals that help to preserve both the integrity
of our legal system and the due process rights of individuals.
For example, one significant reason that a limitations period is
necessary in many cases is that evidence may disappear over time
- paperwork gets lost, witnesses forget details or pass away,
and physical locations that may be key to a case change over
time. Limitations periods also promote finality by encouraging
an individual who has been wronged to bring an action sooner
rather than later - timely actions arguably ensure that the
greatest amount of evidence is available to all parties.
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Despite the above reasons for enacting statutes of limitation,
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that: "[t]here is
typically no statute of limitations for first-degree murder -
for the obvious reason that it would be intolerable to let a
cold-blooded murderer escape justice through the mere passage of
time . . . ." (United States v. Gallaher (2010) 624 F.3d 934,
942.) Accordingly, the lack of a statute of limitations for
murder represents a policy choice by the State of California
(and other states) that a person who takes another person's life
should not be able to escape prosecution just because the
prosecutor did not have sufficient evidence to bring a case
within a specified period of time.
In general, California law requires all civil actions to be
commenced within applicable statutes of limitations. Currently,
the general statute of limitations for an action for assault,
battery, or injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused
by the wrongful act or neglect of another, is two years.
Separately, as a result of legislation enacted in 2005 that made
human trafficking a felony, California law specifically grants
human trafficking victims a longer statute of limitations period
than victims of other civil rights crimes to bring their claims
due to the special circumstances faced by human trafficking
victims. Specifically, that law permits a human trafficking
victim to bring a civil action to recover actual damages,
compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief, any
combination of those, or any other appropriate relief, and sets
the statute of limitations for bringing such claims within five
years of the date on which the trafficking victim was freed from
the trafficking situation. Moreover, if the victim was a minor
when the act of human trafficking against the victim occurred,
the statute of limitations is extended to eight years after the
date the plaintiff attains the age of majority.
This bill extends the above statute of limitations for victims
of human trafficking to bring a civil action to seven years,
and, in the case of minors to 10 years after the plaintiff
attains the age of majority. Additionally, this bill would
enact a new provision creating an exception to the two year
statute of limitations for specified civil actions arising out
of assault, battery, or wrongful death.
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Comments
As stated by the author:
When victims of human rights violations file in state court,
they must assert tort claims, such as wrongful death,
assault, or battery. In California, victims only have two
years before their claims expire. While there are good
reasons for statutes of limitation in the normal context,
victims of human rights abuses face unique obstacles to
bringing their suit. It often takes many years for victims
to find their way out of perilous circumstances, they
typically have very little money or resources, and their
cases can be especially challenging and time-consuming. The
result is that most human rights claims go unheard -
allowing even the most reprehensible human rights abusers to
escape justice simply because time is on their side.
AB 15 seeks to re-balance the scales of human rights cases
and allow survivors ten years to bring their claims to state
court, if they can show their claims results from an
egregious abuse of their fundamental rights.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:
NoLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, unknown,
potentially significant increase in state court costs (General
Fund) to the extent extending the statutes of limitations to
bring civil actions in specified cases results in additional
claims. To the extent five additional claims are filed in any
one year, assuming one week of court time, annual costs would be
in the range of $125,000 (General Fund).
*Trial Court Trust Fund
SUPPORT: (Verified8/28/15)
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International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (source)
Accountability Counsel
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
American Jewish World Service
Amnesty International USA
Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region
Attorneys for the Rights of the Child
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
California Police Chiefs Association
Center for Justice and Accountability
Center for Women Policy Studies
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking
Consumer Attorneys of California
EarthRights International
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Girls Against Porn and Human Trafficking
Global Exchange
GoodWeave International
Government Accountability Project
Hadsell, Stromer & Renick, LLP
HealthWrights
Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley Law
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
Investors Against Genocide
Jewish World Watch
Latin America Working Group
Los Angeles Peace Council
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Council of Jewish Women-CA
National Immigration Project of the NLG
National Lawyers Guild-Los Angeles
Network for Cultural Change
Oxfam America
Pesticide Action Network
Runaway Girl, Inc.
Survivors for Solutions
several individuals
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OPPOSITION: (Verified8/28/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 5/14/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta,
Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez,
Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Travis Allen
Prepared by:Ronak Daylami / JUD. / (916) 651-4113
9/1/15 20:22:36
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