## Facts

- Anthony Price died in a plane crash in Paris.
- Price had never married and had no children.
- For roughly four years before his death, Price lived with Nancy Aspinall and Aspinall’s children.
- Price named Aspinall as the beneficiary under his will.
- Aspinall filed a wrongful-death suit in federal court against the aircraft manufacturers, including McDonnell Douglas Corporation and General Dynamics Corporation, invoking diversity jurisdiction and California wrongful-death law.
- The defendants moved for summary judgment on the ground that Aspinall (and her children) lacked standing because they were not Price’s “heirs” under California’s wrongful-death statute, former California Code of Civil Procedure § 377.
- The district court agreed and entered summary judgment for the defendants.
- Aspinall appealed, arguing she had standing to sue for Price’s death.

## Issues

1. Whether a decedent’s unmarried cohabitant, who is named as a beneficiary in the decedent’s will, is an “heir” with standing to sue for wrongful death under former Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 377.
2. Whether the decedent’s relationship with the cohabitant’s children, absent a legal parent-child relationship, gives the cohabitant or the children standing under § 377.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the summary judgment for the defendants.
- The court held Aspinall lacked standing because § 377 limited wrongful-death plaintiffs to the decedent’s “heirs,” meaning those who would take under intestate succession, and Aspinall did not fit that category.
- The court rejected the contention that being a will beneficiary, or having lived as a family unit in fact, could substitute for statutory heir status under § 377.

## Legal Principles

- Wrongful death in California is a statutory cause of action, and only persons within the statute’s listed class may sue.
- Former Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 377 used “heirs” to mean those who would inherit from the decedent under California intestate-succession law.
- A testamentary gift (being named in a will) does not make a person an “heir” for purposes of § 377 standing.
- Cohabitation or an informal family relationship, without a legally recognized status that confers intestate inheritance rights, does not create standing to bring a wrongful-death claim under § 377.

## Conclusion

Aspinall could not maintain a California wrongful-death action for Price’s death because she was not Price’s statutory “heir” under former Code of Civil Procedure § 377: Price was unmarried and childless, and Aspinall’s status as a cohabitant and will beneficiary did not confer intestate-heir standing; the Ninth Circuit therefore affirmed summary judgment for the aircraft manufacturers.


Aspinall v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 625 F.2d 325 (1980)