Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
Section 377.60 answers, in order, whether a member of a Los Angeles family can personally bring a claim, what its terms mean, and what each category must prove. What the claim is worth and the deadlines sit on the main wrongful death page.
Who has the right to file
Standing means the legal right to bring a claim in your own name. In California it is not a question of who loved the person most. The Legislature wrote a closed list, and a wrongful death cause of action exists only in favor of the persons that list names.
Section 377.60 opens by saying the claim may be asserted by the persons listed below, or by the decedent's personal representative on their behalf. Subdivision (a) names the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and issue of deceased children. Where there is no surviving issue, it names the persons entitled to the decedent's property by intestate succession. It adds that where the parents would qualify but are deceased, the decedent's legal guardians may bring the action as if they were the parents.
Subdivision (b) begins with the words whether or not qualified under subdivision (a), if they were dependent on the decedent, and then lists the putative spouse, the children of the putative spouse, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the decedent where the parents are deceased. Subdivision (c) covers a minor. Subdivision (f) defines a domestic partner as a person who at the time of death was in a registered domestic partnership established under Family Code section 297(b).
Who qualifies by relationship alone
| Who is asking | Can they file | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse | Yes | Subdivision (a), no financial test |
| Registered domestic partner | Yes | Subdivisions (a) and (f), registration required |
| Adult child | Yes | Subdivision (a), no financial test |
| Grandchild whose own parent died first | Yes | Subdivision (a), as issue of a deceased child |
| Parent | Sometimes | Subdivision (b) if dependent, or (a) if no surviving issue |
| Sibling | Sometimes | Subdivision (a) only, by intestate succession |
| Stepchild | Only if dependent | Subdivision (b) |
| Putative spouse | Only if dependent | Subdivision (b) |
| Unmarried partner, never registered | Usually not | Only as a putative spouse under (b) |
| A minor from the household, not related | Sometimes | Subdivision (c), 180 days and half support |
Parents and siblings are the two rows most often misunderstood. Neither has an automatic seat. A parent gets in under (b) by proving dependency, or under (a) by inheriting, which happens only where the person who died left no surviving issue. A sibling has no path under (b) at all.
The inheritance route runs on Probate Code section 6402: whatever does not pass to a surviving spouse goes first to the decedent's issue, then to the parents, then to the issue of the parents, where brothers and sisters enter, then to grandparents or their issue. Read against section 377.60 that yields a plain rule. If the person who died left a child or a grandchild, the siblings and the parents are out.
How financial dependence is proved
Subdivision (b) claimants have a second job that subdivision (a) claimants never have. They must show they were dependent on the decedent, and that is proved with records rather than with the story of the relationship. Gathering it early matters, because it lives in accounts that get closed after a death.
- Bank records showing regular transfers or deposits from the decedent.
- A lease, mortgage statement, or utility account the decedent paid.
- Tax returns claiming the person as a dependent.
- Health insurance under the decedent's policy or employer plan.
- School, childcare, or tuition invoices paid by the decedent.
- Written messages arranging the support, and the household budget it covered.
Partial support counts under subdivision (b), which sets no fraction. Subdivision (c) does set one: the minor must have depended on the decedent for one half or more of their support. That is the only proportion anywhere in the statute.
A minor in the household can qualify
This is the least known part of the statute, and it changes outcomes in blended and informal households. A minor qualifies, whether or not they qualify under (a) or (b), if at the time of death they had resided for the previous 180 days in the decedent's household and depended on the decedent for half or more of their support. No adoption, guardianship, or blood relation is required.
Two facts do all the work: 180 days of residence before the death, and half or more of support. School enrollment, pediatric charts, mail, and a lease naming the address usually establish the first. The second is proved the same way as subdivision (b) dependency.
Why there is only one lawsuit
California does not let each heir file a separate suit over one death. In LAOSD Asbestos Cases (2018) 28 Cal.App.5th 862, 872, the Court of Appeal described the structure: each heir holds a personal and separate claim, and the statutes ordinarily require those claims to be litigated jointly so a defendant is not sued repeatedly for one death. The same opinion adds the limit that matters in practice, holding that the joinder requirement, the rule that the heirs sue together, does not deprive a court of jurisdiction when an heir declines to participate.
The heirs who bring the case name the ones who will not join. Such an heir is typically named as a nominal defendant, a procedural label rather than an accusation, which does not put that person on the other side of the case. Nobody is forced to testify, sign, or accept money.
The first conversation with our attorneys is a family map: every marriage, every child from every relationship, every registered partnership, every household member. An heir discovered in month ten is a far larger problem than one found in week two.
When the estate's representative files instead
The opening line of section 377.60 lets the decedent's personal representative, the executor or administrator appointed in probate, assert the claim on behalf of the persons entitled to it. That is a delivery mechanism, not an extra category of claimant. The representative recovers for the heirs, and the money is theirs, not the estate's.
Families use this route when heirs are scattered, when several are minors, or when an estate is already open. It is a different job from the estate's own claim, which our page on survival actions and what changed in 2026 explains.
When the right to file is disputed
Standing is contested most often in the families most common in Los Angeles.
- A long partnership that was never registered. Without a registered domestic partnership under Family Code section 297(b), or a good faith belief in a valid marriage, a surviving partner has no route into (a) or (b), whatever the length of the relationship.
- A separated but undivorced spouse. The statute asks whether the marriage existed, not whether it was working. A spouse who had moved out still qualifies under (a).
- A self-supporting stepchild who was raised by the decedent but never adopted. Subdivision (b) requires dependency, and an adult stepchild with their own income usually does not have it.
- Parents of an adult who left children. Surviving issue closes the inheritance route in (a), so the parents must prove dependency under (b) or they are out.
- Two households. A spouse in one and children from an earlier relationship in another are all heirs, in one case, dividing one award. This is the single most common source of conflict inside a wrongful death file.
- An heir living outside the United States. Section 377.60 sets no residency requirement, but service, translation, and identity documents take months, and the case is built around that.
Whether you can file
Start with subdivision (a). If you are the spouse, the registered domestic partner, a child, or the child of a child who died before the decedent, you can. If you are a parent or a sibling, ask whether the person who died left any issue: if they did, you need dependency under (b) or you have no claim. If you are a stepchild, a putative spouse, or a minor from the household, it is a dependency question and the documents decide it.
If the answer is yes, the next question is how the money is divided among the heirs. If the death happened on the road, our Los Angeles car accident page covers how those cases are investigated. If you are not sure which subdivision you fall under, our attorneys can answer that quickly.
No fee unless we recover.