Opinion ID: 1227333
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Estate's State Law Tort Claims for Emotional Distress

Text: The Estate alleges tort claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress under California law. The district court held that, under California law, the Estate's tort claims for emotional distress did not survive the death of Dorothy Martin. We agree. Under California law, [i]n an action or proceeding by a decedent's personal representative or successor in interest on the decedent's cause of action, the damages recoverable are limited to the loss or damage that the decedent sustained or incurred before death, including any penalties or punitive or exemplary damages that decedent would have been entitled to recover had the decedent lived, and do not include damages for pain, suffering, or disfigurement. Cal.Civ.Proc.Code § 377.34 (emphasis added). Notwithstanding the emphasized text, which clearly precludes recovery of emotional distress damages, the Estate reasons that the tort claims survive because Dorothy could have recovered punitive damages. The California Court of Appeal recently considered and rejected this precise argument. Berkley v. Dowds, 152 Cal.App.4th 518, 61 Cal.Rptr.3d 304, 316 (2007). Section 377.34 does not permit recovery for emotional distress upon the death of the person allegedly harmed and, under long-established California authority, an award of compensatory damages in some amount is a prerequisite to a punitive damage award. Berkley, 61 Cal.Rptr.3d at 316. We see no reason to disagree with the analysis of the California Court of Appeal. See Vestar Dev. II, LLC v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 249 F.3d 958, 960 (9th Cir.2001) (stating that, if the state's highest court has not decided the issue and there is no convincing evidence that the state supreme court would decide differently, a federal court is obligated to follow the decisions of the state's intermediate appellate courts (internal quotation marks omitted)). Accordingly, we affirm the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law to Defendants on the Estate's state law tort claims for emotional distress.