California Code of Civil Procedure 377.60 sets out who has the legal right to sue when someone dies because of another person’s or entity’s wrongful act or negligence. Eligibility runs in tiers: the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the decedent’s children, and the children of any deceased children come first, followed by whoever would inherit under intestate succession if no one in that first group survives, plus separate paths for financial dependents and certain minors who lived in the decedent’s household. A companion statute, CCP 377.61, controls what damages a court can award.
Who Can File Under CCP 377.60
The statute identifies eligible claimants in a specific order. A personal representative of the decedent’s estate can also file on behalf of any eligible person rather than each family member filing separately.
The Primary Tier: Spouse, Children, Grandchildren
First in line are the surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, the decedent’s children, and the children of any deceased children. If none of those relatives survive, eligibility opens to anyone who would inherit under California’s intestate succession rules, which typically reaches parents first and then siblings. If a parent would have qualified but has died, the decedent’s legal guardians can step into that place.1California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.60 – Wrongful Death
Financial Dependents
A second category covers people who depended on the decedent financially, regardless of whether they fit the primary tier. This includes a putative spouse (someone who genuinely believed they were legally married to the decedent even though the marriage was void or voidable), children of a putative spouse, stepchildren, and parents.1California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.60 – Wrongful Death Each of these claimants has to prove actual financial dependence at the time of death.
Minors in the Household
The statute carves out a separate path for any minor who lived in the decedent’s home for at least 180 days before the death and relied on the decedent for half or more of their financial support.1California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.60 – Wrongful Death This provision reaches children who had no formal legal tie to the decedent but were effectively being raised by them. The minor does not need to qualify under the other two categories.
Deadlines That Can End a Claim Before It Starts
Standing under CCP 377.60 means little if the filing window closes. Three separate deadlines can apply.
The General Two-Year Rule
CCP 335.1 gives you two years from the date of death to file a wrongful death lawsuit.2California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 335.1 It covers most cases: car crashes, workplace incidents, defective products. The clock starts at death, not at the underlying wrongful act.
Two narrow exceptions can extend that period. If the claimant is a minor, the limitations period may be tolled until they turn 18. A discovery rule can also apply where the cause of death was not immediately apparent, in which case the clock starts when the claimant discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the link between the death and the defendant’s conduct.3California Courts. Deadlines to Sue Someone
Medical Malpractice
When a healthcare provider’s negligence caused the death, CCP 340.5 controls. The suit must be filed within three years of the date of injury or one year from when the claimant discovered or should have discovered the injury, whichever comes first. The only exceptions that extend the three-year outer limit are fraud, intentional concealment, or a foreign object left in the patient’s body.4California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 340.5
Claims Against Government Entities
If a government employee or agency caused the death, an administrative claim must be presented to the public entity in writing within six months of the date of death.5California Legislative Information. California Government Code 911.2 No lawsuit for money or damages against the government can proceed until that written claim has been submitted and either acted on or deemed rejected. Six months passes quickly during grief, and courts will not waive this requirement simply because a family did not know about it.
What Damages CCP 377.61 Allows
The companion section, CCP 377.61, permits whatever damages are “just” under the circumstances.6California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.61 Outside the medical malpractice context, California does not cap noneconomic damages in wrongful death cases.
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover the financial contributions the decedent would have made had they lived: projected future earnings, lost employee benefits such as health insurance and retirement contributions, the value of household services the decedent performed, and funeral and burial costs. Calculating those figures typically involves expert testimony from economists or vocational specialists who project the decedent’s remaining working life.
Noneconomic Damages
Noneconomic damages cover the loss of companionship, emotional support, and guidance the decedent provided. Each eligible claimant’s loss is assessed individually. A surviving spouse’s loss of companionship is evaluated separately from a child’s loss of parental guidance.
The Medical Malpractice Cap
When the death resulted from medical malpractice, California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, as amended by AB 35, caps noneconomic damages. The wrongful death cap started at $500,000 in 2023 and increases by $50,000 each year until it reaches its final level in 2033. For a case resolved in 2026, the applicable cap is $650,000. Economic damages remain uncapped even in malpractice cases.
No Punitive Damages
CCP 377.61 explicitly excludes any damages that would be recoverable under CCP 377.34, the survival action statute.6California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.61 Punitive damages sit inside the survival framework, so they are not available through a wrongful death claim. If the defendant’s conduct was egregious enough to warrant punishment, that remedy exists only through a separate survival action.
Wrongful Death vs. Survival Actions
The two claims are related but legally distinct, and families often file both.
A wrongful death claim under CCP 377.60 and 377.61 belongs to the survivors and compensates them for what they lost when the decedent died: future financial support, companionship, and guidance.
A survival action belongs to the decedent’s estate. CCP 377.30 passes any cause of action the decedent could have pursued while alive to their personal representative or successor in interest.7California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.30 Recoverable damages are limited to losses the decedent personally suffered before death: medical expenses, lost wages between injury and death, and punitive damages if the defendant’s conduct involved malice, oppression, or fraud.8California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.34 – Survival Actions
One recent change matters. From 2022 through 2025, survival actions could also recover damages for the decedent’s pre-death pain, suffering, and disfigurement. That provision expired on January 1, 2026, so survival actions filed in 2026 or later return to the traditional rule excluding those damages unless the legislature extends it.8California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 377.34 – Survival Actions
Filing both claims captures the full range of available compensation, because wrongful death cannot include punitive damages and a survival action cannot include the survivors’ lost companionship.
How Comparative Fault Affects Recovery
California uses a pure comparative fault system, and it applies in wrongful death cases. If the decedent was partly responsible for the incident that caused their death, the family’s damages are reduced by the decedent’s percentage of fault. On a $1 million award where the decedent bore 30% of the fault, recovery drops to $700,000. California does not bar recovery entirely even where the decedent carried the majority of the fault.
Taxes, Benefits, and Medicare
Most wrongful death settlement proceeds are not federally taxable. Under 26 U.S.C. 104(a)(2), damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness are excluded from gross income, lump sum or periodic.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness That covers compensatory damages for lost financial support, loss of companionship, funeral costs, and the decedent’s pre-death medical expenses and pain.
Two categories remain taxable. Punitive damages must be reported as income on your federal return regardless of the underlying case.10Internal Revenue Service. Publication 4345 – Settlements Taxability Interest that accrues between the award and payment is also taxable as ordinary income.
Families receiving Supplemental Security Income need to plan before funds arrive. A lump-sum settlement counts as a resource, and the SSI resource limit remains $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple in 2026.11Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet A settlement that pushes countable resources above those thresholds can disqualify you from benefits. A special needs trust established before the funds are disbursed is the standard tool for preserving eligibility.
Medicare reimbursement is a separate issue. If Medicare paid for treatment related to the injury that caused the death, federal law may require reimbursement out of the settlement. Where the settlement rests entirely on a wrongful death theory and no medical expenses were claimed or released, Medicare has no recovery rights against the payment. Keep court pleadings and any amendments showing the basis of the claim, because the government can request that documentation in a dispute.12Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Secondary Payer Manual – Wrongful Death Statutes When a settlement encompasses both wrongful death and medical expenses, Medicare’s recovery right applies and must be satisfied before the remaining funds are distributed.
Attorney Fees and Litigation Costs
Wrongful death attorneys in California almost universally work on contingency, collecting a percentage of the recovery rather than billing hourly. Contingency fees typically range from 25% to 40%, with the percentage often depending on whether the case settles early or goes to trial. Some agreements use a sliding scale that steps up at each stage of litigation.
Litigation costs sit apart from the fee. Filing fees for a civil complaint in California superior court vary by county, and families should also expect charges for expert witnesses, accident reconstruction, medical record retrieval, deposition transcripts, and court reporter fees. In contingency arrangements the attorney usually advances these costs and deducts them from the recovery, but the specific terms vary. Read the fee agreement carefully, particularly whether costs come out before or after the attorney’s percentage is calculated, because that single distinction can shift thousands of dollars.