Is a wrongful death action timely filed and barred by the statute of limitations?

[124 Cal.App.3d 458] In Gomez v. Valley View Sanitorium, supra, 87 Cal.App.3d 507, 151 Cal.Rptr. 97, it was held that the wrongful death action filed by plaintiffs more than one year after the decedent's death was timely filed and not barred by the one-year limitation period of Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5. The plaintiffs had given the notice required by Code of Civil Procedure section 364 within ninety days of the date the statute of limitations would run. Because Code of Civil Procedure section 364, subdivision (a), also prohibits the commencement of an action until ninety days have expired after service of the notice, the court held the ninety-day period should be excluded when calculating the applicable statute of limitations. Furthermore, since subdivision (d) of section 364 operated to extend the period of limitations ninety days (because plaintiffs' notice was served within ninety days of the expiration of the limitation period), the plaintiffs were entitled to the ninety-day extension in addition to the ninety-day tolling of the statute. The court stated: