§ 338.1.Civil Penalties Or Punitive Damages Authorized Under Division 20, Health and Safety Code

Section 338.1 is an enforcement-side limitations rule. It covers civil penalties or punitive damages authorized under several specific chapters of the Health and Safety Code (governing hazardous waste control, underground petroleum storage, hazardous material release response, and the hazardous substance account) and under a designated chapter of the Public Resources Code. Rather than running from the violation itself, the five-year period runs from the discovery by the agency bringing the action of the facts constituting the grounds for it — giving regulators time to find the violation before their window to sue starts closing.

That agency-discovery trigger sets § 338.1 apart from most of this chapter’s other deadlines, which run from the date of the wrongful act or from a private plaintiff’s own discovery. Here the relevant discovery belongs to the government body enforcing the statute, so the clock can start well after the violation itself, once an inspection, audit, or complaint brings it to the agency’s attention.