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By David Gammill · Last reviewed: August 18, 2026
CCP § 377.60 limits who can sue for wrongful death in California: the surviving spouse or domestic partner, children, and certain financial dependents. If you are not on the statute’s list, you cannot file, no matter how close you were to the person who died. Courts apply the list strictly, and getting the plaintiffs right at the start protects both the case and the family’s deadline.
The key subdivisions of Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60, verbatim (the full section, including its domestic-partner definitions, is at the official source linked below):
A cause of action for the death of a person caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another may be asserted by any of the following persons or by the decedent’s personal representative on their behalf:
(a) The decedent’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, children, and issue of deceased children, or, if there is no surviving issue of the decedent, the persons, including the surviving spouse or domestic partner, who would be entitled to the property of the decedent by intestate succession. If the parents of the decedent would be entitled to bring an action under this subdivision, and the parents are deceased, then the legal guardians of the decedent, if any, may bring an action under this subdivision as if they were the decedent’s parents.
(b) (1) Whether or not qualified under subdivision (a), if they were dependent on the decedent, the putative spouse, children of the putative spouse, stepchildren, parents, or the legal guardians of the decedent if the parents are deceased.
(2) As used in this subdivision, “putative spouse” means the surviving spouse of a void or voidable marriage who is found by the court to have believed in good faith that the marriage to the decedent was valid.
(c) A minor, whether or not qualified under subdivision (a) or (b), if, at the time of the decedent’s death, the minor resided for the previous 180 days in the decedent’s household and was dependent on the decedent for one-half or more of the minor’s support.
Source: Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 377.60, California Legislative Information (verified August 18, 2026).
In plain English: the statute creates three doors into a wrongful death case. Door one is for the immediate family and the people who would inherit if there were no will. Door two is for specific people who depended on the decedent financially, whether or not they inherit. Door three is for a minor child who was living in the decedent’s home and relying on them for support. If none of the three doors fits, there is no standing (no legal right to bring the case), and a court will dismiss the claim no matter how real the grief is.
The surviving spouse or registered domestic partner and the decedent’s children come first. “Children” includes adopted children. If one of the decedent’s children died before them, that child’s own children (the decedent’s grandchildren) step into their parent’s place; the statute calls them “issue of deceased children.”
If the decedent left no children or grandchildren at all, subdivision (a) opens a second path: the people who would inherit the decedent’s property under California’s intestate succession rules (the rules that decide who inherits when there is no will) may file. This is how a parent of an unmarried, childless adult can have standing, and in rarer situations a sibling: not because the statute names them, but because they are next in the inheritance line.
Subdivision (b) protects specific people who depended on the decedent financially, whether or not they qualify under subdivision (a): a putative spouse, the putative spouse’s children, stepchildren, and parents. Dependence is the requirement for this group. The statute does not require them to have lived in the decedent’s household; that residence rule belongs to subdivision (c) and applies only to minors.
Courts measure dependence in practical terms: did the person actually rely on the decedent for the necessities of life? A retired parent whose rent was paid by a working adult child is the classic example.
A putative spouse is someone whose marriage to the decedent turns out to be legally void or voidable, but who believed in good faith that the marriage was valid. The classic example: a spouse whose partner’s earlier divorce was never actually finalized.
The California Supreme Court settled how that belief is judged in Ceja v. Rudolph & Sletten, Inc. (2013) 56 Cal.4th 1113: the good-faith test is subjective. The question is whether this person genuinely believed the marriage was valid, considering all the circumstances, not whether a hypothetical reasonable person would have believed it. A putative spouse still must prove dependence on the decedent to file under subdivision (b).
Subdivision (c) is California’s recognition that families are not always built on blood or paperwork. A minor who lived in the decedent’s household for the 180 days before the death, and who depended on the decedent for at least half of their support, can file even with no biological or legal relationship. Think of a partner’s child the decedent was raising: if the residence and support facts are true, the child has standing.
Both requirements are strict: 180 days of residence in the household and one-half or more of the minor’s support. Evidence like school records, household bills, and financial statements proves them.
Wrongful death standing in California is strictly statutory. Courts have no power to add sympathetic plaintiffs the Legislature left out. In Stennett v. Miller (2019) 34 Cal.App.5th 284, the Court of Appeal held that the biological child of an absentee father had no standing because she had no right to inherit from him under the intestate succession rules: he had never openly held her out as his own, and no paternity order existed from his lifetime. The court explained that standing under § 377.60’s first door turns on the right to inherit, and it affirmed dismissal even while acknowledging the rule’s harshness.
The practical exclusions, in most cases: siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, unmarried partners who do not qualify as putative spouses or registered domestic partners, and parents who were neither dependent on the decedent nor next in the inheritance line. For these family members the loss is real, but § 377.60 does not give them a claim, and no court can create one.
California treats wrongful death as a single, joint claim. All eligible family members join in one action, and the court apportions any recovery among them based on each person’s losses. Separate suits by different relatives over the same death are not allowed. This “one action” structure exists to protect defendants from repeated lawsuits and to make sure the recovery is divided fairly, and it is why identifying every eligible plaintiff at the start matters so much: an heir who is left out of the case can create serious procedural problems later.
Damages in the joint action are governed by CCP § 377.61, which lets the jury award what is “just” under all the circumstances: lost financial support, lost household services, and the loss of the decedent’s love, companionship, comfort, and guidance. Our complete wrongful death guide covers damages, evidence, and the lawsuit process step by step.
Standing and deadlines are separate questions, and a family needs the right answer to both. Most California wrongful death cases must be filed within two years of the date of death under CCP § 335.1, the two-year statute of limitations. When a public entity caused the death, a written claim is due within six months under Gov. Code § 911.2; our government claim deadline guide explains that sequence. Sorting out who has standing takes time (paternity records, dependence evidence, inheritance analysis), which is one more reason families should not wait to get counsel involved.
A related but distinct claim, the survival action, belongs to the decedent’s estate rather than the family and follows its own damages rules; see our explainer on CCP § 377.34 and survival action damages.
Standing questions arrive here the same way they do everywhere in California, but South Bay families face one local wrinkle worth naming: many of the area’s serious fatality cases involve public entities. Torrance Transit is a City of Torrance department, Metro operates separately, school campuses belong to districts like Torrance Unified, and the freeways belong to Caltrans. When a public entity is the defendant, the family must resolve standing AND present the six-month government claim, correctly addressed to the right entity, at the same time. A family that spends five months sorting out who may file has left itself weeks to satisfy the claim statute. Start both clocks together, on day one, with counsel.
Yes. The text quoted above reflects California law as of the review date at the top of this page, verified against the official California Legislative Information site and independent mirrors. The standing categories described here are long-settled, and no 2025 or 2026 legislative session change to § 377.60 was found at review.
Standing questions are exactly the kind of problem that gets worse with time: the evidence that proves dependence or paternity is easiest to gather early, and the filing deadlines run whether or not the right plaintiffs have been identified. If you lost a family member anywhere in Torrance or the South Bay, talk to a Torrance wrongful death attorney or a Torrance personal injury attorney now. Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149. There are no upfront legal fees; a fee is collected only if we win, under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law.
Disclaimer: This article is educational and informational in nature. It does not constitute legal advice for any specific situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Standing and deadline questions are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances.