§ 377.42.Damages Recoverable

Section 377.42 sets the damages rule for Article 4 claims -- claims brought against a decedent's estate rather than by the decedent's own estate. The general rule is generous to the claimant: all damages that might have been recovered against the decedent, had the decedent lived, remain recoverable against the personal representative or, where a statute permits it, the successor in interest.

The one carve-out is punitive or exemplary damages, whether recoverable under Civil Code § 3294 or under any other provision. Those damages do not survive against the estate. That is a useful point of contrast with § 377.34, which governs the opposite kind of claim -- the decedent's own survival action -- and takes the reverse approach, generally barring pain-and-suffering damages while allowing punitive damages the decedent could have recovered. Between the two sections, punitive damages travel with the decedent's own claim but not against the decedent's estate, while pain-and-suffering damages generally travel the other way, surviving against the estate but not with the decedent's claim.