Is a government agency liable for negligence if a plaintiff dies as a result of negligence?

'In drawing the line between the immune 'discretionary' decision and the unprotected ministerial act we recognize both the difficulty and the limited function of such distinction. As we said in Lipman v. Brisbane Elementary School Dist., Supra, 55 Cal.2d 224, 230, 11 Cal.Rptr. 97, 99, 359 P.2d 465, 467, 'it may not be possible to set forth a definite rule which would determine in every instance whether a governmental agency is liable.' A workable definition nevertheless will be one that recognizes that '(m)uch of what is done by officers and employees of the government must remain beyond the range of judicial inquiry' (citation); obviously 'it is not a tort for government to govern' (citation). Courts and commentators have therefore centered their attention on an assurance of judicial abstention in areas in which the responsibility for Basic policy decisions has been committed to coordinate branches of government. Any wider judicial review, we believe, would place the court in the unseemly [3 Cal.App.3d 1058] position of determining the propriety of decisions expressly entrusted to a coordinate branch of government. Moreover, the potentiality of such review might even in the first instance affect the coordinate body's decision-making process.' (p. 793, 73 Cal.Rptr. p. 248, 447 P.2d p. 360)