Is a minor entitled to sue for damages against an adult who failed to act on behalf of the minor?

Until some adult undertakes to act on a minor's behalf, he is ordinarily without the ability to protect his rights personally. Nevertheless, his rights will still be lost if such initial action is not taken within the more liberal period presently established by the claims statute. (Wall v. Sonora Union High Sch. Dist., supra, 240 Cal.App.2d 870, 872-874, 50 Cal.Rptr. 178.) However, once some adult has undertaken to act on the minor's behalf either by filing a timely claim or a belated claim within the period permitted therefor, his position thereafter is realistically no different from that of any adult who must rely on his counsel to prosecute his cause of action in accordance with the applicable statute of limitations. (Cf. Tubbs v. Southern Cal. Rapid Transit Dist., 67 A.C. 683, 687-688, 690-691, 63 Cal.Rptr. 377, 433 P.2d 169.) Thus, in the instant action wherein the minor's claim indicates that he and his mother, his natural guardian, were both represented by counsel at that time, the failure of such counsel to file a complaint on their respective causes of action effected as great a hardship to the adult as to the minor and each of them was equally unable realistically to avoid such misfortune.