Bill Text: CA AB2445 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Assembly Bill 2445 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Civil actions: wrongful death.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-09-09 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 51, Statutes of 2020. [AB2445 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB2445-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 2445

CHAPTER 51

An act to amend Section 377.60 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to civil actions, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor September 09, 2020. Filed with Secretary of State September 09, 2020. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2445, Reyes. Civil actions: wrongful death.

Existing law specifies the persons who may bring a civil action for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another, and includes among those persons the decedent’s parents if they were entitled to the decedent’s property by intestate secession or if they were dependent on the decedent.

This bill would also authorize a decedent’s legal guardians to bring a civil action if the decedent’s parents were authorized to bring a civil action but they are deceased, or if the legal guardians were dependent on the decedent and the decedent’s parents are deceased.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 377.60 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to read:

377.60.

A cause of action for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another may be asserted by any of the following persons or by the decedent’s personal representative on their behalf:

(a) The decedent’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and issue of deceased children, or, if there is no surviving issue of the decedent, the persons, including the surviving spouse or domestic partner, who would be entitled to the property of the decedent by intestate succession. If the parents of the decedent would be entitled to bring an action under this subdivision, and the parents are deceased, then the legal guardians of the decedent, if any, may bring an action under this subdivision as if they were the decedent’s parents.

(b) (1) Whether or not qualified under subdivision (a), if they were dependent on the decedent, the putative spouse, children of the putative spouse, stepchildren, parents, or the legal guardians of the decedent if the parents are deceased.

(2) As used in this subdivision, “putative spouse” means the surviving spouse of a void or voidable marriage who is found by the court to have believed in good faith that the marriage to the decedent was valid.

(c) A minor, whether or not qualified under subdivision (a) or (b), if, at the time of the decedent’s death, the minor resided for the previous 180 days in the decedent’s household and was dependent on the decedent for one-half or more of the minor’s support.

(d) This section applies to any cause of action arising on or after January 1, 1993.

(e) The addition of this section by Chapter 178 of the Statutes of 1992 was not intended to adversely affect the standing of any party having standing under prior law, and the standing of parties governed by that version of this section as added by Chapter 178 of the Statutes of 1992 shall be the same as specified herein as amended by Chapter 563 of the Statutes of 1996.

(f) (1) For the purpose of this section, “domestic partner” means a person who, at the time of the decedent’s death, was the domestic partner of the decedent in a registered domestic partnership established in accordance with subdivision (b) of Section 297 of the Family Code.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for a death occurring prior to January 1, 2002, a person may maintain a cause of action pursuant to this section as a domestic partner of the decedent by establishing the factors listed in paragraphs (1) to (6), inclusive, of subdivision (b) of Section 297 of the Family Code, as it read pursuant to Section 3 of Chapter 893 of the Statutes of 2001, prior to its becoming inoperative on January 1, 2005.

(3) The amendments made to this subdivision during the 2003–04 Regular Session of the Legislature are not intended to revive any cause of action that has been fully and finally adjudicated by the courts, or that has been settled, or as to which the applicable limitations period has run.

SEC. 2.

This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order to ensure that legal guardians have standing to pursue wrongful death actions on behalf of deceased minor children within pending statutes of limitations periods, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.