Opinion ID: 6328260
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The awards, even absent post-death “hedonic”

Text: damages, were more than adequate as to deterrence and compensation. 7 Westlaw has several tools to compare the wrongful death awards that the families in Valenzuela and Craig received to see whether my claim that wrongful death awards in § 1983 cases are sufficient to satisfy the remedial goals of § 1983 is borne out. First, take a look at the Westlaw Personal Injury Valuation Handbook. This resource compiles statistics from wrongful death jury trials to create an average, or “basic injury value” for wrongful death claims based on the age, marital status, and number of children of the deceased. This basic injury value can then be adjusted for income. Valenzuela was thirty-two when he died, single, and had two children. Thus, his basic injury value for wrongful death according to the handbook is $1,737,197. However, he had no employment nor salary at the time of his death. Thus, we decrease this base number by 94%, which leaves us with $104,231.82. Someone in the position of Valenzuela’s family could hope to recover only $104,231.82 at a jury trial for wrongful death on average. Valenzuela’s family was awarded $3.6 million. 7 Neither the plaintiffs in Valenzuela nor Craig sought additur to increase the damages awards; additur is available under California law. Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 662.5. VALENZUELA V. CITY OF ANAHEIM 19 We see a similar result in Craig. Brandon Witt was thirty-nine and single, with no children at the time of his death. It does not appear that evidence of his income or salary was presented at trial, so without adjusting for income, the basic injury value for his wrongful death amounts to $975,000. His parents were awarded $1.4 million for his wrongful death. And there is no reason to believe that these outcomes are statistical aberrations. Westlaw has another tool, California Jury Verdicts and Settlements, which allows us to compare wrongful death awards in similar cases. In Estate of Rose v. County of Sacramento, 2017 WL 5564148 (E.D. Cal. 2017), the parents of an excessive force victim who died by police gunshot received $4.5 million in wrongful death damages. In Sentell v. City of Long Beach, 2013 WL 6515430 (C.D. Cal. 2013), the excessive force victim’s family received $4.5 million in wrongful death damages. In Estate of Pickett v. County of San Bernardino, 2018 WL 10230033 (C.D. Cal. 2018), the excessive force victim’s parents were awarded $8.5 million in wrongful death damages. The availability of other forms of damages, including wrongful death damages, brings California’s tort scheme in line with federal law, even in the absence of post-death “hedonic” damages. In Garcia, 42 Cal. App. 4th at 185, the California Court of Appeal reached that conclusion when it held that California’s prohibition on post-death “hedonic” damages awards was not inconsistent with § 1983 because the availability of punitive damages in survival actions satisfied the compensation and deterrence goals of § 1983.