Title 2. Of the Time of Commencing Civil Actions · Chapter 3. The Time of Commencing Actions Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property · Enacted 1979 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
Asbestos-related disease often takes decades to surface. A worker who breathed in fibers on a jobsite in the 1970s might not develop symptoms of an asbestos-related illness until decades later, long after an ordinary personal-injury deadline would have run out. Section 340.2 responds to that reality by tying the filing clock to when the disease shows itself or is discovered, rather than to the date of exposure.
The section gives an injured plaintiff one year to sue, measured from whichever of two triggering events comes later. The first is the onset of a qualifying disability, defined here as a loss of work time that keeps the person from performing their regular job. The second is the point at which the plaintiff knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, that the disability traces back to asbestos exposure. Because many illnesses develop gradually and their cause isn’t always clear right away, this later-of test protects a plaintiff who becomes disabled before learning why, and one who suspects asbestos before the disability sets in.
Subdivision (c) extends the same structure to wrongful death claims arising from asbestos exposure. There, the one-year period runs from the later of the decedent’s death or the point the plaintiff learned, or reasonably should have learned, that asbestos contributed to it. Family members bringing a wrongful death claim get the benefit of the same discovery-based approach that protects the injured worker.
One year, but the clock starts on whichever comes later: the date you first suffered a disabling loss of work from the illness, or the date you knew, or reasonably should have known, that asbestos exposure caused or contributed to it.
Section 340.2 defines it narrowly, as a loss of time from work caused by the exposure that keeps the person from doing their regular job, not any medical diagnosis or symptom on its own.
Yes. Subdivision (c) applies the same later-of approach to wrongful death claims, running from the decedent’s death or from when the plaintiff learned, or should have learned, that asbestos contributed to it.
Because asbestos-related illness can take decades to develop after exposure, a deadline tied to the exposure date alone could expire before anyone knew there was a claim. Section 340.2 ties the deadline to disability or discovery instead.
Added by Stats. 1979, Ch. 513.