The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld awarding $3.6 million in “loss of life” damages in a 1983 action in Valenzuela v. City of Anaheim. That position, from which Judge Kenneth K. Lee dissented, reinforces the holding of Chaudry v. City of Los Angeles, 751 F.3d 1096 (2014). It also marks a distinction between the way this issue is handled in federal court versus the way it is treated under California law, where § 377.34 of the Cal Code of Civil Procedure bars recovery for loss of life in an action brought by the estate of a decedent.
As footnote 7 of the opinion acknowledges, the position taken by the majority here has been unanimously followed by district courts in the Ninth Circuit after Chaudry, so this outcome is not any major shift in the landscape. In fact, if anything, the longer term significance of the opinion would seem to be Judge Lee’s dissent, which makes the case for revisiting Chaudry.