A year ago, in Rubenstein v. Doe No. 1, a 4-3 Supreme Court interpreted statutes of limitations in the Code of Civil Procedure and the Tort Claims Act in the Government Code to bar a 34-year-old woman’s claim that she was sexually molested by her high school cross-country and track coach almost 20 years earlier. The dissent — by now-retired Justice Kathryn Werdegar, for herself and Justices Goodwin Liu and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar — said the result “cannot fairly be attributed to the Legislature.”
The Legislature agreed, passing Assembly Bill 3120 to reverse Rubenstein. On Sunday, however, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the legislation, reiterating in a statement what he said in vetoing a similar bill in 2013.
Neither the bill nor the Governor’s veto message mentions Rubenstein specifically.
