Does the term "dependent parents" apply to financial dependency as well as emotional dependency?

Although it was argued below that the term "dependent" as used in Code of Civil Procedure section 377 encompassed emotional dependency as well as financial dependency, it appears that appellant has abandoned this premise on appeal. The term "dependent" would be rendered virtually meaningless if emotional dependency was sufficient to sue for wrongful death. Almost all parents depend on their children for emotional satisfaction and are injured by the death of their child. The floodgates would be opened by this interpretation. Financial dependency should be the test for parents who are not heirs of the decedent. However, once financial dependency is shown, then the parent may recover "for the loss of that child's comfort and society, and subsequent protections which the child may afford to the parent, provided these elements are considered in reasonable relation to pecuniary loss." (Riley v. California Erectors, Inc. (1973) 36 Cal.App.3d 29, 32, 111 Cal.Rptr. 459.)

[192 Cal.App.3d 609] In Hazelwood v. Hazelwood, supra, 57 Cal.App.3d 693, 129 Cal.Rptr. 384, the parents filed an action for damages for the wrongful death of their son claiming to be dependent parents within the meaning of Code of Civil Procedure section 377. The post-1968 and pre-1975 statute was applicable to their case. "The trial court found, on substantial evidence, that decedent did not, during his lifetime, contribute to the support of appellants; that appellants, at the time of decedent's death, were not disabled, were both gainfully employed and were self-supporting. It concluded that, as a matter of law, appellants were not dependent parents of decedent within the meaning of section 377." (Id. at p. 696, 129 Cal.Rptr. 384.) Appellants argued that the term "dependent parents" encompassed more than actual financial dependency and included "reliance upon decedent for comfort and affection and for support and pecuniary advantages to which they might be entitled in the future." (Id. at p. 697, 129 Cal.Rptr. 384.) The court held that the term " 'dependent parents' as it was used in Code of Civil Procedure section 377 means parents who, at the time of the child's death, were actually dependent, to some extent, upon the decedent for the necessaries of life." (Id. at p. 698, 129 Cal.Rptr. 384.)

In Evans v. Shanklin (1936) 16 Cal.App.2d 358, 60 P.2d 554, a mother sought to recover damages for the wrongful death of her son. The decedent was married and had two adult children at the time of his death and so the mother was not an heir. (Id. at p. 359, 60 P.2d 554.) The mother was poor and unable to provide for herself. The decedent for years before and at the

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