Opinion ID: 2632117
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Wrongful Death Statute

Text: (1) Section 377.60 authorizes a wrongful death action by specified persons including the decedent's spouse and children. Unlike some jurisdictions wherein wrongful death actions are derivative, Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 `creates a new cause of action in favor of the heirs as beneficiaries, based upon their own independent pecuniary injury suffered by loss of a relative, and distinct from any the deceased might have maintained had he survived. [Citations.]' ( Horwich v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 272, 283 [87 Cal.Rptr.2d 222, 980 P.2d 927], italics omitted ( Horwich ).) As was stated in San Diego Gas & Electric Co. v. Superior Court (2007) 146 Cal.App.4th 1545, 1551 [53 Cal.Rptr.3d 722], any wrongful death recovery is in the form of a lump sum verdict determined according to each heir's separate interest in the decedent's life [citation], with each heir required to prove his or her own individual loss in order to share in the verdict. (§ 377.61; [citation].) Because a wrongful death action compensates an heir for his or her own independent pecuniary losses, it is one for `personal injury to the heir.' [Citations.] Thus, in a wrongful death action the `injury' is not the general loss of the decedent, but the particular loss of the decedent to each individual claimant.