Within three years:
§ 338.Liability Created By Statute; Trespass Or Injury to Real Property; Taking, Detaining Or Injuring Goods Or Chattels; Fraud Or Mistake; Bond of Public Official; Notary's Bond; Slander of Title; Section 17536, Business and Professions Code; Water Quality Control Act; Section 19, Article 1, California Constitution; Division 26, Health and Safety Code; Sections 1603.1, 1615, 5650.1, Fish and Game Code; Validity of Special Tax Levy; Section 51.7, Civil Code; Violation of Fpa Or Forestry and Fire Protection Rules and Regulations; Section 26038, Business and Professions Code
Title 2. Of the Time of Commencing Civil Actions · Chapter 3. The Time of Commencing Actions Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property · Last amended 2024 · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 338 sets a three-year deadline for a long list of distinct claims — including statutory liability, trespass to real property, taking or injuring personal property, fraud or mistake, and several specific environmental and public-official-bond statutes — some of which run from discovery rather than the wrongful act itself.
Full Text of § 338
(a) An action upon a liability created by statute, other than a penalty or forfeiture.
(b) An action for trespass upon or injury to real property.
(1) An action for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels, including an action for the specific recovery of personal property.
(2) The cause of action in the case of theft, as described in Section 484 of the Penal Code, of an article of historical, interpretive, scientific, or artistic significance is not deemed to have accrued until the discovery of the whereabouts of the article by the aggrieved party, the aggrieved party's agent, or the law enforcement agency that originally investigated the theft.
(3)
(A) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), an action for the specific recovery of a work of fine art brought against a museum, gallery, auctioneer, or dealer, in the case of an unlawful taking or theft, as described in Section 484 of the Penal Code, of a work of fine art, including a taking or theft by means of fraud or duress, shall be commenced within six years of the actual discovery by the claimant or the claimant's agent, of both of the following:
(i) The identity and the whereabouts of the work of fine art. In the case where there is a possibility of misidentification of the object of fine art in question, the identity can be satisfied by the identification of facts sufficient to determine that the work of fine art is likely to be the work of fine art that was unlawfully taken or stolen.
(ii) Information or facts that are sufficient to indicate that the claimant has a claim for a possessory interest in the work of fine art that was unlawfully taken or stolen.
(B) This paragraph shall apply to all pending and future actions commenced on or before December 31, 2017, including an action dismissed based on the expiration of statutes of limitations in effect prior to the date of enactment of this statute if the judgment in that action is not yet final or if the time for filing an appeal from a decision on that action has not expired, provided that the action concerns a work of fine art that was taken within 100 years prior to the date of enactment of this statute.
(C) For purposes of this paragraph:
(i) "Actual discovery," notwithstanding Section 19 of the Civil Code, does not include constructive knowledge imputed by law.
(ii) "Auctioneer" means an individual who is engaged in, or who by advertising or otherwise holds the individual out as being available to engage in, the calling for, the recognition of, and the acceptance of, offers for the purchase of goods at an auction as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1812.601 of the Civil Code.
(iii) "Dealer" means a person who holds a valid seller's permit and who is actively and principally engaged in, or conducting the business of, selling works of fine art.
(iv) "Duress" means a threat of force, violence, danger, or retribution against an owner of the work of fine art in question, or the owner's family member, sufficient to coerce a reasonable person of ordinary susceptibilities to perform an act that otherwise would not have been performed or to acquiesce to an act to which the person would otherwise not have acquiesced.
(v) "Fine art" has the same meaning as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 982 of the Civil Code.
(vi) "Museum or gallery" shall include any public or private organization or foundation operating as a museum or gallery.
(4) Section 361 shall not apply to an action brought pursuant to paragraph (3).
(5) A party in an action to which paragraph (3) applies may raise all equitable and legal affirmative defenses and doctrines, including, without limitation, laches and unclean hands.
(6) Notwithstanding any other law or prior judicial decision, in any action brought by a California resident, or by an heir, trustee, assignee, or representative of the estate of a California resident, involving claims relating to title, ownership, or recovery of personal property as described in paragraph (2) or (3), or in the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 (HEAR) (Pub. L. No. 114-308), including claims for money damages, California substantive law shall apply. This paragraph shall apply to all actions pending on the date this paragraph becomes operative or that are commenced thereafter, including any action in which the judgment is not yet final or the time for filing any appeal, including a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, has not expired, or, if filed, has not been decided.
(d) An action for relief on the ground of fraud or mistake. The cause of action in that case is not deemed to have accrued until the discovery, by the aggrieved party, of the facts constituting the fraud or mistake.
(e) An action upon a bond of a public official except any cause of action based on fraud or embezzlement is not deemed to have accrued until the discovery, by the aggrieved party or the aggrieved party's agent, of the facts constituting the cause of action upon the bond.
(1) An action against a notary public on the notary public's bond or in the notary public's official capacity except that a cause of action based on malfeasance or misfeasance is not deemed to have accrued until discovery, by the aggrieved party or the aggrieved party's agent, of the facts constituting the cause of action.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), an action based on malfeasance or misfeasance shall be commenced within one year from discovery, by the aggrieved party or the aggrieved party's agent, of the facts constituting the cause of action or within three years from the performance of the notarial act giving rise to the action, whichever is later.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), an action against a notary public on the notary public's bond or in the notary public's official capacity shall be commenced within six years.
(g) An action for slander of title to real property.
(h) An action commenced under Section 17536 of the Business and Professions Code. The cause of action in that case shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the aggrieved party, the Attorney General, the district attorney, the county counsel, the city prosecutor, or the city attorney of the facts constituting grounds for commencing the action.
(i) An action commenced under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Division 7 (commencing with Section 13000) of the Water Code). The cause of action in that case shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the State Water Resources Control Board or a regional water quality control board of the facts constituting grounds for commencing actions under their jurisdiction.
(k) An action commenced under Division 26 (commencing with Section 39000) of the Health and Safety Code. These causes of action shall not be deemed to have accrued until the discovery by the State Air Resources Board or by a district, as defined in Section 39025 of the Health and Safety Code, of the facts constituting grounds for commencing the action under its jurisdiction.
(l) An action commenced under Section 1602, 1615, or 5650.1 of the Fish and Game Code. These causes of action shall not be deemed to have accrued until discovery by the agency bringing the action of the facts constituting the grounds for commencing the action.
(m) An action challenging the validity of the levy upon a parcel of a special tax levied by a local agency on a per parcel basis.
(n) An action commencing under Section 51.7 of the Civil Code.
(o) An action commenced under Section 4601.1 of the Public Resources Code, if the underlying violation is of Section 4571, 4581, or 4621 of the Public Resources Code, or of Section 1103.1 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, and the underlying violation is related to the conversion of timberland to nonforestry-related agricultural uses. These causes of action shall not be deemed to have accrued until discovery by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
(p) An action for civil penalties commenced under Section 26038 of the Business and Professions Code.
Plain-English Summary
Section 338 is the broadest, most heavily amended section in this chapter: a three-year period applied across more than a dozen unrelated categories of claim. At its core sit the classics — an action on a liability created by statute (other than a penalty or forfeiture), trespass to or injury of real property, and taking, detaining, or injuring personal property (including a suit to recover the property itself).
Several of § 338’s categories run on a discovery rule rather than an act-based clock. An action for relief on the ground of fraud or mistake doesn’t accrue until the aggrieved party discovers the facts constituting the fraud or mistake — one of the most frequently litigated discovery rules in the whole code. The same discovery approach governs claims on a public official’s bond for fraud or embezzlement, most notary-bond claims, actions under Business and Professions Code § 17536, Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act claims, actions under Health and Safety Code Division 26 (air quality), and specified Fish and Game Code violations — in each case measured from when the aggrieved party or enforcing agency discovers the facts.
A separate, detailed set of provisions covers theft of historically, scientifically, or artistically significant articles: those claims don’t accrue until the aggrieved party discovers the article’s whereabouts, and a special six-year period (not three years) applies to claims for stolen fine art brought against a museum, gallery, auctioneer, or dealer, running from actual discovery of both the art’s location and the facts supporting a possessory claim. That fine-art provision also revives certain claims pending or dismissed as of the statute’s enactment, subject to detailed conditions spelled out in the text.
The remaining categories — slander of title to real property, physical property damage claims under Article I, § 19 of the California Constitution, challenges to a special tax levy, actions under Civil Code § 51.7, specified timberland-conversion violations, and civil penalties under Business and Professions Code § 26038 — round out a section that, more than any other in this chapter, has to be checked against its own subdivision letter for the exact rule that governs a given claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the statute of limitations for fraud in California?
Three years under § 338(d), running not from the fraudulent act but from when the aggrieved party discovers the facts constituting the fraud or mistake.
What is the statute of limitations for trespass to real property in California?
Three years under § 338(b).
What is the statute of limitations for stolen fine art in California?
Six years from actual discovery of the art’s identity and whereabouts and of facts supporting a possessory claim, under § 338(c)(3), when the action is against a museum, gallery, auctioneer, or dealer — longer than the three years that otherwise applies to taking or detaining personal property.
Why does § 338 cover so many unrelated topics?
The Legislature has folded specific statutory claims — environmental enforcement, notary and public-official bonds, timberland violations, cannabis penalties, and more — into this section’s three-year period over many decades of amendment rather than housing each in its own statute.
Amendment History
Amended by Stats 2024 ch 257 (AB 2867),s 2, eff. 9/16/2024. Amended by Stats 2021 ch 264 (AB 287),s 1, eff. 1/1/2022. Amended by Stats 2018 ch 796 (SB 1453),s 1, eff. 1/1/2019. Amended by Stats 2015 ch 683 (SB 798),s 1, eff. 1/1/2016. Amended by Stats 2010 ch 691 (AB 2765),s 2, eff. 1/1/2011. Amended by Stats 2006 ch 538 (SB 1852),s 62, eff. 1/1/2007. Amended by Stats 2005 ch 383 (SB 1110),s 1.5, eff. 1/1/2006 Amended by Stats 2005 ch 123 (AB 378),s 2, eff. 7/19/2005, op. 1/1/2006
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: California statute of limitations fraudCalifornia statute of limitations trespassthree year statute of limitations Californiastatute of limitations stolen artwork California