Munoz v. State of California

In Munoz v. State of California (1995) 33 Cal.App.4th 1767, the claimant made a similar argument. The claimant was the daughter of a prison inmate, who died while in custody. She claimed his death was the result of malpractice by medical personnel at the California Correctional Institution and submitted an application for leave to file a late claim after the one-year statutory time period had expired. ( Munoz, supra, 33 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1772-1773.) The claimant in Munoz argued that she should be excused from the claim filing requirements because she was unable to obtain access to her father's medical records until just a few days before the filing deadline, and her attorney could not "in good faith" file a claim for medical malpractice without reviewing the records. ( Munoz, supra, 33 Cal.App.4th at p. 1775.) The court noted that section 910 does not require the claimant to provide great specificity in filing an initial claim, and held that the "goal of perfect precision was no excuse for failure to file the claim within the statutory six-month period." ( Id. at pp. 1784-1785.)