California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Hernandez v. Fujioka, 114 Cal.Rptr. 844, 40 Cal.App.3d 294 (Cal. App. 1974):
Allocation of Award. We cannot, on the record brought to us on this appeal, conclude that the trial court erred in apportioning the compromise award one-third to each of the plaintiffs. Code of Civil Procedure section 377 requires that the court determine the 'respective rights' of the parties in wrongful death award. Each is entitled 'to share in the fund in the proportion that his personal damage bears to the damage suffered by the others.' (Changaris v. Marvel, 231 Cal.App.2d 308, 313, 41 Cal.Rptr. 774, 777.) Here the trial judge heard evidence over many weeks of trial bearing upon the relative damage caused by the death of a wife and mother to the three plaintiffs in the wrongful death action. Appellant points to nothing in the record of proceedings at the trial itself which detracts from the determination made by the trial court. He has not brought a transcript of those proceedings to us on this appeal.
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