Hi, my name is Matt Eason. I’ve been practicing wrongful death and personal injury law here in Sacramento, California, for over 25 years. In this video, we’re going to discuss what constitutes a wrongful death claim in California.
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What constitutes a wrongful death claim in California has two basic components to it. One liability, who caused or what caused the wrongful death? And two, damages, what can you recover in a wrongful death action?
The first issue that we have to grapple with in a wrongful death action is to confirm that was the death wrongful. Wrongful generally means it was caused by someone’s failure to do something they should have done or doing something incorrectly.
Consequently, in a wrongful death action, the general principles of negligence apply. Did the person that caused the death fail to act as a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances? Car accidents, truck accidents, things of that nature are typically fairly straightforward. A driver should have done something or should not have done something that caused the accident. Professional malpractice, such as medical malpractice, can be much more complex. Just because someone passes away while a doctor is taking care of it does not necessarily mean that there’s a wrongful death action. But rather did the doctor fail to do something that they should have done under the ordinary circumstances.
Once you have established liability in a wrongful death action, the attention then turns to the damages you have the right to receive from a wrongful death action. Damages in a wrongful death action are typically broken down into two different categories, economic and non-economic damages.
As you would anticipate, economic damages are those types of damages that an accountant, for example, could put a dollar number on, such as how much was the decedent contributing to the household? How much financial support were they paying? Are they getting regular gifts and things of that nature? Those are the type of economic damages that you can recover from a wrongful death action.
Non-economic damages, in contrast, are probably the most difficult of all damages in all cases when it comes to wrongful death because it’s trying to put a value on the loss of companionship and emotional support that the decedent was providing you. That can vary so much from one person to the next.
Although, technically, a little bit beyond the scope of this video’s question, something worth talking about now to is what happens if someone dies in the course and scope of their employment? In California, besides having a claim against the third person that caused the death, the workers’ compensation insurance policy for the employer may provide benefits to any dependents of the employee.
A couple of unique differences between a workers’ compensation death claim and a wrongful death claim is that in the workers’ compensation arena, the person that can bring it is much broader. To bring a claim for death in the workers’ compensation arena only requires that you’re a financial dependent upon the decedent. Likewise, if someone passes away in the course and scope of their employment, you are not required to prove fault.
It could be, quite frankly, the employee’s fault or no one’s fault that caused the death, and you would still have a right to a claim in the workers’ compensation arena for death benefits. The unfortunate tradeoff in the workers’ compensation world in not having to prove fault, however, is that you’re limited as to the amount about that you can recover within a statutory scheme.
If you have lost a loved one recently or someone you depend on and think you might have a wrongful death claim or claim for workers compensation death benefits, I hope you consider reaching out to myself or one of our wrongful death attorneys in Sacramento.
