When a limitation or period of time prescribed in any existing statute for acquiring a right or barring a remedy, or for any other purpose, has begun to run before this code goes into effect, and the same or any limitation is prescribed in this code, the time that has already run shall be deemed part of the time prescribed as such limitation by this code.
§ 9.Limitations shall continue to run
Preliminary Provisions · Last amended 2018 · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 9 provides that when a limitations period was already running under prior law before the code took effect, the time already elapsed counts toward the period the code now prescribes.
Full Text of § 9
Plain-English Summary
Section 9 solves a timing problem the 1872 codification could otherwise have created. If a statute of limitations — or any other deadline meant to bar a claim or protect a right — had already started running before the code took effect, and the code sets its own version of that same limitation, the clock doesn’t restart. The time that already passed still counts.
The rule exists because the code gathers the state’s statutes of limitations into one place; without it, recodifying those deadlines could have accidentally given litigants extra time they were never meant to have.
Official Comment
The following official comments are published by the California Law Revision Commission (and, for a few older sections, its predecessor Code Commissioners) alongside the statute itself — not commentary from this site.
Code Commissioners' Note. Necessary, because the statutes of limitations for civil actions and proceedings are embodied in this code.
Frequently Asked Questions
If a statute of limitations was already running when the Code of Civil Procedure took effect, did it start over?
No. Section 9 counts the time that already ran toward the limitation period the code now prescribes.
Why was this rule necessary?
Because the code consolidated the state’s statutes of limitations into one place, and without a continuity rule, that consolidation could have reset deadlines already in progress.
Amendment History
Enacted 1872. Amended Code Amdts 1873–74 ch 383 § 1; Stats 2017 ch 561 § 20 (AB 1516), effective January 1, 2018.
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: limitations period continues to run CCP section 9statute of limitations already running California