Mayo v. White

Opinion

BEST, J.

This case presents the novel question of whether the personal representative of a deceased minor may maintain an action for wrongful death on behalf of the decedent’s siblings where the parents survive the minor but later disclaim their interest in the minor’s estate. We will hold that the personal representative of a decedent may maintain an action for wrongful death only on behalf of the “heirs” as defined by the intestacy provisions of the Probate Code, 1 and that such action cannot be maintained on behalf of persons who become substitute heirs by virtue of the true “heirs”…