When is the deadline for limitation period: wrongful death action?
The catalogue records a 3 years period from The death of the deceased person. This draft page remains free only until its source, worked example and limits are reviewed.
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Calculation basis and source
- Period
- 3 years
- Trigger
- The death of the deceased person
- Counting
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- Limitation of Actions Act 1936 (SA) s 48(1) applies, because s 48(1) reaches a time prescribed or limited by 'an Act, regulation, rule or by-law' and the court may extend it 'to such an extent, and upon such terms (if any) as the justice of the case may require'. The restrictive gateways in s 48(3)(b) do NOT apply here: by their terms they bite only on a court's power 'to extend a limitation of time prescribed by this Act', and the 3-year period is prescribed by the Civil Liability Act 1936, not by the Limitation of Actions Act. Section 45 (legal disability, 30-year cap) also applies. Note that Limitation of Actions Act s 3A removes any limitation period for an action contemplated by s 23 of the Civil Liability Act 1936 where the death resulted from abuse of the person when a child.
- Runs from the DEATH, not from the accrual of the deceased's own cause of action. Only one action lies under Part 5 in respect of the same subject matter of complaint. Corrected on verification: the researched entry recorded the extension power as 'Limitation of Actions Act 1936 (SA) s 48 (restricted gateways in s 48(3)(b))'. That understates the position and could cause a practitioner to abandon a recoverable claim as unextendable. Section 48(3)(b) restricts only the extension of 'a limitation of time prescribed by this Act'; the Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA) s 25 period is prescribed by a different Act, so the unqualified discretion in s 48(1) applies. Sources: Limitation of Actions Act 1936 (SA) s 48(1) and (3)(b), version 1.7.2021, and Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA) s 25, version 22.6.2023, both published under the Legislation Revision and Publication Act 2002.