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When a nursing home death results from neglect, abuse, or preventable medical failure, California law provides a defined framework for the damages families can pursue. Understanding exactly what can be recovered, who can recover it, and how California's elder abuse statutes expand on standard wrongful death remedies is essential for any family considering legal action. At The Elder Justice Firm, we pursue the full range of available damages in every nursing home death case we handle.
In California, a nursing home death typically gives rise to two distinct legal claims, both of which are usually filed together. The wrongful death claim, brought under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.60, compensates the surviving family members for their own losses. The survival action, brought under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 377.30, is brought by the estate and compensates for the harm the deceased suffered before death. These two claims capture different aspects of the loss and together represent the full scope of the legal remedy available to the family.
Surviving family members can recover the financial support the deceased would have provided had they lived. For elderly nursing home residents, this category is often less significant than it might be for a younger decedent, but it can include the value of services the resident provided, pension or Social Security income that would have supported the household, and financial contributions to dependents.
Surviving spouses, domestic partners, and children can recover non-economic damages for the loss of the love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society, and moral support the deceased provided. Courts and juries recognize that these losses are real even when they cannot be precisely quantified. The nature and quality of the relationship between the deceased and each surviving family member is directly relevant to the amount recoverable.
Funeral and burial costs are recoverable as economic damages in a California wrongful death case. These expenses can include the funeral service, burial plot or cremation, transportation, and related costs.
Medical expenses incurred during the final illness that led to death are recoverable as part of the wrongful death claim. This includes hospital bills, specialist fees, emergency care, and any other medical costs that arose from the neglect or abuse that caused the death.
The survival action allows the estate to recover for the physical pain, fear, and emotional suffering the deceased experienced during the period between the negligent conduct and death. In bedsore and sepsis cases, this period often involves severe pain for weeks or months. In fall injury cases, it includes suffering from a hip fracture or head injury. The duration and intensity of the pre-death suffering are relevant to the amount recoverable.
The estate can recover economic losses the deceased sustained before death, including lost earnings or business income if any, and the cost of medical treatment paid from the deceased's own resources.
When the nursing home's conduct that caused the death was reckless, oppressive, fraudulent, or malicious, California's Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act, Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15657 provides enhanced remedies beyond standard wrongful death law. These include:
These enhanced remedies exist because California's legislature determined that the systemic failures that kill nursing home residents require consequences more severe than standard negligence remedies provide. Demonstrating recklessness typically requires showing that the facility knew about the risk, was placed on notice through prior regulatory citations or internal quality assurance data, and continued the dangerous practice anyway.
Under CCP Section 377.60, wrongful death claims may be filed by: surviving spouses or domestic partners; children of the deceased, including adopted children and, if no children survive, grandchildren; any person who was dependent on the deceased; and a putative spouse or stepchildren in certain circumstances. The survival action under CCP Section 377.30 is filed by the deceased's estate, represented by the estate's personal representative. When a wrongful death also involves elder abuse, the attorney's fees and enhanced damages under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15657 are available to the estate through the survival action.
California does not impose a cap on non-economic damages in wrongful death cases arising from nursing home neglect, unlike the caps that apply in some medical malpractice contexts. This means that the loss of companionship, society, and comfort that surviving family members experience is compensated without an arbitrary ceiling.
California law requires all wrongful death claimants to join in a single action. If they do not do so voluntarily, the court can consolidate their claims. The damages recovered in the wrongful death action are apportioned among the claimants based on their individual losses and the nature of their relationship with the deceased.
A standard wrongful death claim under CCP 377.60 recovers the family's economic and non-economic losses. The Elder Abuse Act adds attorney's fees payable by the defendant and the possibility of punitive damages when the conduct was reckless or malicious. It also allows pre-death pain and suffering to be recovered through the survival action, which provides an additional avenue for compensation that is particularly significant in cases involving extended periods of suffering before death.
If your loved one died in a California nursing home due to neglect or abuse, you deserve to know the full scope of damages available to your family. At The Elder Justice Firm, we maximize recovery by pursuing all available theories, including the enhanced remedies under California's Elder Abuse Act. We handle all cases on contingency, meaning no fees unless we recover for you. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.
We have won multi-million-dollar cases against public and private facilities on behalf of our clients. As a result, many institutions and their insurance companies opt to settle with us, based on our attorneys’ reputations.
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