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Garcia v. Superior Court1/31/1996
VOGEL (C. S.), J.
INTRODUCTION
Following his arrest, which allegedly was accomplished with excessive force including a carotid chokehold, decedent Philip Vogel died of asphyxiation. Alleging that the police and paramedics violated decedent's federal civil rights, decedent's sister, in her capacity as representative of his estate, brought this action pursuant to the federal Civil Rights Act, 42 United States Code section 1983. In this case we decide whether California's statutory provision for damages in a survival action adequately fulfills the requirements of the federal Civil Rights Act. We hold that it does.
California's statute governing survival of actions, Code of Civil Procedure section 377.34, provides that the only damages recoverable in an estate's lawsuit on the decedent's cause of action are the damages sustained by decedent before death and punitive damages the decedent would have been entitled to had decedent lived; it expressly excludes damages for the decedent's pain and suffering. Plaintiff contends that these limitations in the California statute are inconsistent with federal law, and that in order to effectuate the policies of the federal Civil Rights Act, plaintiff is entitled also to recover damages for decedent's pain and suffering and damages for decedent's "loss of the enjoyment of life," known as "hedonic" damages. Although several lower federal court decisions support plaintiff's reasoning, those opinions are not binding on us. We conclude that the damages available under California law are not inconsistent with the compensatory and deterrent purposes of the federal Civil Rights Act. The trial court was not required to allow plaintiff to seek hedonic damages, a concept foreign to our state survival statute.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
According to the allegations of the first amended complaint: decedent Philip Vogel was detained and arrested by the City of Bell Gardens police, without probable cause, for being under the influence of a controlled substance. The police then used excessive force against decedent, including a carotid chokehold. Decedent was "hogtied like an animal, with his hands and feet bound together behind his back." Los Angeles County paramedics, responding to the scene because decedent appeared "in the throes of a narcotics induced psychosis," placed decedent in an ambulance for transportation to a hospital, on his chest and still "hogtied." On the way, decedent "went into full [cardiac] arrest due to positional asphyxiation resulting from defendants' unreasonable use of restraints." He died a short time later.
The portion of the first amended complaint involved here (third cause of action, entitled "SURVIVAL ACTION: violation of decedent's civil rights-- 42 U.S.C.S. ยง 1983") is prosecuted by plaintiff and petitioner Suanne Garcia, decedent's sister, as the personal representative of his estate, asserting the cause of action decedent would have had if he survived. In paragraph 23 of the complaint she alleged: "As a proximate result of the foregoing wrongful acts of defendants, and each of them, the decedent has sustained a loss of the enjoyment of life and other hedonic damages, in an amount in accordance with proof."
Defendants and respondents County of Los Angeles and the two named paramedics moved to strike paragraph 23 on the ground that Code of Civil Procedure section 377.34 does not provide for the estate to recover such damages. Plaintiff opposed the motion on the ground that federal case law allowing such damages was controlling.
The trial court struck paragraph 23 of the complaint. Plaintiff filed the instant petition for a writ of mandate to compel
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