Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The statute of limitation on any cause of action accrues (or begins to run) on the date of discovery of the act giving rise to the cause of action. If you knew that someone has stolen something from you 10 years ago and did nothing about it, you are barred from brining suit now. The fact that someone may have threatened you probably has nothing to do with your need to pursue your cause of action.

Mr. Hoffman is wrong. Duress may be an excuse that tolls most statutes of limitations. I have to tell you, though, that doing nothing for ten years would mean you are EXTREMELY unlikely to be able to get a ruling that the limitations period was tolled for that long. You would have to prove that the threats actually prevented you from suing for all that time, and you had absolutely no other option but to give in to the threats for over ten years.