§ 377.60.Persons Who May Assert Action

Section 377.60 creates a cause of action that belongs to the decedent's survivors, not to the decedent -- a wrongful death action, brought for the survivors' own losses from the death, distinct from any survival action the decedent's estate might bring under § 377.30 for what the decedent suffered before dying. The two claims can proceed together, but they compensate different people for different harms, which is why § 377.61 specifically excludes § 377.34 damages from a wrongful death recovery.

Subdivision (a) names the primary class entitled to sue: the decedent's surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and the issue of any deceased children, or, if there is no surviving issue, whoever would inherit from the decedent by intestate succession. If the decedent's parents would qualify but are themselves deceased, the decedent's legal guardians may sue in the parents' place. Subdivision (b) reaches further, allowing a putative spouse, a putative spouse's children, stepchildren, parents, or the decedent's guardians (if the parents are deceased) to sue if they were dependent on the decedent, whether or not they qualify under subdivision (a). Subdivision (c) reaches further still, letting a minor sue regardless of subdivisions (a) and (b) if, for the 180 days before the decedent's death, the minor lived in the decedent's household and depended on the decedent for at least half of the minor's support.

The action applies to deaths occurring on or after January 1, 1993, and a savings clause preserves standing that existed under the version of this section in effect between 1992 and 1996. Subdivision (f) defines "domestic partner" by reference to a registered domestic partnership under Family Code § 297(b), with a transitional rule for deaths before 2002, and makes clear that later amendments do not revive claims already finally adjudicated, settled, or time-barred.