## Facts

- Gilbert Quiroz, a dependent adult, resided at Seventh Avenue Center, a skilled nursing facility in Santa Cruz, California.
- Gilbert died in 2001 while at the facility.
- Maria G. Quiroz, Gilbert’s mother, sued the facility and related defendants.
- Maria timely filed a wrongful death claim seeking damages for her own losses resulting from Gilbert’s death.
- Thirteen months after Gilbert’s death, Maria amended the complaint to add a survivor cause of action seeking damages for Gilbert’s pre-death injuries and remedies under the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act.

## Issues

1. Whether an untimely survivor cause of action seeking damages for the decedent’s pre-death injuries relates back to a timely wrongful death complaint seeking damages for the heir’s own losses.
2. Whether a plaintiff may obtain Elder Abuse Act heightened remedies in connection with a wrongful death claim, particularly where the wrongful death claim was voluntarily dismissed.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed judgment for the defendants.
- The survivor cause of action did not relate back to the timely wrongful death claim and was barred by the applicable statute of limitations.
- The plaintiff could not obtain Elder Abuse Act heightened remedies through the wrongful death claim, which had been voluntarily dismissed.

## Legal Principles

- A wrongful death action is a statutory claim belonging to specified heirs and compensates their own losses caused by the death; it is not a survival of the decedent’s personal injury claim.
- A survivor action is the decedent’s claim that passes to a personal representative or successor in interest and seeks recovery for the decedent’s pre-death injuries.
- Under California relation-back doctrine, an amended claim relates back only if it is based on the same general facts, the same injury, and the same instrumentality; an amendment asserting a different primary right or different injury states a new cause of action and does not relate back.
- Because wrongful death and survivor actions vindicate different primary rights and redress different injuries (heir’s loss versus decedent’s pre-death injury), a late-filed survivor claim generally cannot relate back to a timely wrongful death complaint.
- Elder Abuse Act heightened remedies are tied to claims based on the dependent adult’s own injuries; they are not available merely by labeling an heir’s wrongful death recovery as elder abuse, and they provide no basis for recovery where the only surviving claim is time-barred.

## Conclusion

The court held that the plaintiff’s late-filed survivor elder-abuse claim was time-barred because it alleged a different injury from the timely wrongful death claim and therefore could not relate back, and it rejected the attempt to obtain Elder Abuse Act heightened remedies through a dismissed wrongful death claim.


Quiroz v. Seventh Avenue Ctr., 140 Cal. App. 4th 1256, 45 Cal. Rptr. 3d 222 (Ct. App. 2006)