Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: returning equipment to prev. employer

Immediately.

Re: returning equipment to prev. employer

For up to three years based on Code of Civil Procedure, section 338.

Re: returning equipment to prev. employer

The two answers you've received so far are both right, they just attach different meanings to your question. The soonest the employer can ask for its return is immediately. The latest they can ask for it, with any teeth in the demand, is when all the possibly-applicable statutes of limitation have run out....at which point they couldn't effectively sue the former employee.

The specific statute of limitations in Code of Civil Procedure 338 is three years for the tort of conversion and related claims such as replevin. If, however, the ex-employee had a written employment agreement requiring return of the property, the employer could sue on the contract within four years of its breach, since CCP 337 specifies a four year limitations period for actions based on breach of an agreement in writing.

I might add that ownership of the equipment never passes to the employee; there is no equivalent concept to adverse possession of real property which causes loss of title to personal property with the passage of time.