The Court of Appeal, in Piedmont Capital Management, etc., v. McElfish, confirms that a HELOC agreement that requires the borrower to make monthly payments and to pay the full amount by a specific date, which also grants the lender discretion whether to accelerate the loan due to a missed payment, does not contemplate that a breach as to a monthly payment is a breach as to the full amount absent acceleration.
Suit on the agreement was, therefore, timely as to all missed monthly payments within the four years preceding its filing and timely as to all future payments because those payments were accelerated within that four-year “look back” period. [The statute of limitations for a breach of contract claim is four years per Code Civ. Proc., § 337.]