Opinion ID: 2604641
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Effect of death after judgment

Text: The foregoing common law rule of abatement of causes of action for personal torts applied when the plaintiff died before judgment; as we shall see, the statutes abolishing that rule in California so specified. A different rule applied at common law, however, when the plaintiff died after judgment: As a general rule, an action is not abated by the death of a party after the cause of action has been merged in a final judgment and while the judgment stands, even though the judgment is based on a cause of action which would not survive the death of a party before judgment. In such case, the doctrine of abatement does not apply. (1 C.J.S., Abatement and Revival, § 127, p. 172, fns. omitted.) For the purposes of that rule a judgment was final even though it was on appeal when the plaintiff died: As a general rule, the death of a party pending an appeal or writ of error is not a ground for abatement of the suit.... ( Id. at § 128, p. 173, fn. omitted.) [1] Again California followed the common law rule. The leading case in this court is Fowden v. Pacific Coast Steamship Co. (1906) 149 Cal. 151 [86 P. 178] (hereafter Fowden ). There a passenger on a steamer was injured when a hawser broke while the vessel was docking. He sued the steamship company for damages; the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and the court entered judgment on the verdict. The court thereafter denied the defendant's motion for a new trial, and the defendant appealed from that order. While the appeal was pending, the injured plaintiff died and his special administrator was substituted as plaintiff. In this court the defendant contended that the injured plaintiff's death abated the action, relying on the rule actio personalis moritur cum persona. This court acknowledged the rule, but held it inapplicable when the plaintiff is awarded a judgment but dies during an appeal; in that event the case is governed by the rule that the cause of action is merged into the judgment, and the judgment is merely suspended until the appeal is resolved. We said: it may be conceded that the rule [ actio personalis moritur cum persona ] applies to such a cause of action as is stated in the complaint herein, and that no change in the common-law rule material to such a cause of action has been made by statute in this state. (See Harker v. Clark, [ supra , ] 57 Cal. 245.) It must, however, be held that the rule has no application under the circumstances of this case. Here, judgment upon the cause of action alleged was given and entered in favor of the plaintiff prior to his death, and this judgment has not been vacated. ( Fowden, supra, 149 Cal. at pp. 153-154.) We reasoned that a motion for new trial, like an appeal, does not vacate the judgment but simply suspends its operation until the challenge is resolved. ( Fowden, supra, 149 Cal. at p. 154.) We then observed that in California  contrary to some jurisdictions  an appeal does not annul the judgment and result in a new trial in the reviewing court; rather, the appeal is in the nature of a writ of error, i.e., it asks the appellate court to review the record of the trial for errors and to affirm, reverse, or modify the judgment accordingly. ( Ibid. ) We therefore applied the rule governing cases of death after judgment: The authorities are practically unanimous upon the proposition that although the cause of action is such that it would abate by the death of the plaintiff before judgment, the death of the plaintiff after judgment, and pending disposition of a writ of error or appeal in the nature of a writ of error, will not affect the judgment. As some of the cases say, the original wrong or claim is merged in the judgment, which has all the attributes of a judgment in actions ex contractu. After the giving of the judgment, the controversy is over the judgment, and not over the original wrong. The judgment is not annulled during the pendency of such controversy, but simply suspended. [Citations.] ( Ibid., first and second italics added.) [2] Earlier decisions of this court had pointed to the same rule (see In re Lux (1896) 114 Cal. 73, 81 [45 P. 1023]), and later decisions treated it as settled. Thus in Andrews v. Valley Ice Co. (1914) 167 Cal. 11, 12-13 [138 P. 699], a wrongful death plaintiff died during an appeal from a judgment in her favor and the Court of Appeal rejected a defense contention that the action therefore abated; on review in this court, we found it necessary only to observe that This latter contention was correctly held of no avail upon the authority of Fowden v. Pacific Steamship Co., 149 Cal. [at] 153 [86 Pac. 178]. In Bock v. Hamilton Square Baptist Church (1933) 219 Cal. 284, 289 [26 P.2d 7], a defendant appealing from a judgment awarding damages jointly to an injured wife and her husband demanded segregation of the wife's share of the award because her right of action would assertedly abate if she were to die during the appeal; again we found it necessary only to observe that This alleged reason is based upon an erroneous conception of the law. ( Fowden v. Pacific Coast Steamship Co., 149 Cal. 151 [86 Pac. 178]; ...) As noted, the plaintiff in Fowden, supra, 149 Cal. 151, died during the defendant's appeal from an order denying a new trial. The opposite situation arose in Sherwin v. Southern Pacific Co. (1914) 168 Cal. 722 [145 P. 92] ( Sherwin ), but this court nevertheless followed Fowden. In Sherwin the injured plaintiff received a verdict and judgment in his favor, but died while the defendant's motion for a new trial was pending. His was executrix substituted as plaintiff. The court then granted the defendant's motion for a new trial, and the executrix appealed. The defendant contended that the death of the injured plaintiff abated the action because the order granting the new trial assertedly vacated the judgment and set the case at large as a general reversal on appeal would have done. We rejected the contention. We began ( Sherwin, supra, 168 Cal. at p. 724) by reaffirming the Fowden rule: It is well settled that the death of the plaintiff in such an action, after a judgment in his favor, and while the judgment stands, does not abate the action or affect the validity of the judgment. Such judgment becomes a part of his estate and may be enforced by his representatives. Accordingly, it has been held that the death of the plaintiff after such judgment and while a motion for a new trial is pending, or during the pendency of an appeal by the defendant from an order denying a new trial, does not abate the action, and that in such a case the judgment stands until it is vacated on the appeal, and that if the order is affirmed, the original judgment is good. ( Fowden v. Pacific C.S. Co., 149 Cal. [at] 154, [86 Pac. 178].) We then held that the same rule applied even though the trial court had granted the defendant's motion for new trial. We reasoned that the executrix had the right to appeal from that order, and that appeal suspended the operation of the order until it was resolved: while the appeal therefrom, if taken, is pending, the order is subject to the condition that if it is reversed its effect to vacate the judgment will be annulled, and the judgment will then stand as if no order granting a new trial had been made, or as if the motion had been denied and such denial had become final or had been affirmed on appeal. The appellant is therefore entitled to prosecute this appeal, in order to produce this result and restore the judgment to its original vigor if the appeal is successful. ( Sherwin, supra, 168 Cal. at p. 725.) Again, therefore, the death of the injured plaintiff after entry of judgment did not abate the action. Although this court has not since had occasion to revisit the common law rule governing cases of death after judgment, the Courts of Appeal have continued to apply the rule on the authority of Fowden and its progeny. (E.g., Blackwell v. American Film Co. (1920) 48 Cal. App. 681, 683 [192 P. 189]; Widener v. Hartnett (1938) 30 Cal. App.2d 165, 167-168 [85 P.2d 925]; Gutierrez v. Alvarado (1972) 24 Cal. App.3d 327, 329, fn. 1 [101 Cal. Rptr. 1] (per Kaus, P.J.).) Unless it has been modified or abolished by statute, the Fowden rule remains the law of this state.