Yes, under California law, life expectancy damages are recoverable for the period where the survivor and the decedent would have been alive together. However, our San Diego wrongful death lawyer adds that this legal damages must be limited to the life expectancy of the survivor or the decedent, depending on which is shorter.
Some Examples:
If a wife is fatally injured in a California car accident, and the husband sues to recover damages in a wrongful death lawsuit as a result of the accident, his legal recovery for life expectancy damages will be limited to the amount of time he and his wife would otherwise have been alive together. Say, for example, he was expected to live another 20 years, and his wife was expected to have lived another 30 years, he can only recover damages for the 20 years of his life expectancy where they would otherwise have been alive together (since his life expectancy is shorter).
A better example is mother or father versus son or daughter - lets say dad was 75 years old, and the son was 50 years old and he was killed in a wrongful death type accident; and there is only 10 years of life expectancy for the dad. Therefore, only 10 years of damages would be allowable as it is shorter than the life expectancy of the 50 year-old son who died.