Except as provided in Sections 946.4 and 946.6, no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity on a cause of action for which a claim is required to be presented in accordance with Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 900) and Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 910) of Part 3 of this division until a written claim therefor has been presented to the public entity and has been acted upon by the board, or has been deemed to have been rejected by the board, in accordance with Chapters 1 and 2 of Part 3 of this division.
Cal. Gov. Code § 945.4
Actions Against Public Entities
Known as the Government Claims Act
The act spans §§ 810–998 (301 sections).
Applied in 87 court decisions — leading case 16 Cal. 3d 834 - Williams v. Horvath (1976)
Most recently applied in 7 Cal. 5th 798 - Quigley v. Garden Valley Fire Protection Dist. (July 2019)
Amended by Stats. 1965, Ch. 653.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.