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Cal. Prob. Code § 554

Liability of Decedent Covered byInsurance

Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Van Ort v. Estate of Stanewich (1996)

Most recently applied in Meleski v. Estate (November 2018)

Amended by Stats. 1990, Ch. 710, Sec. 3

How often courts cite this section

199620002010201820
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), either the damages sought in an action under this chapter shall be within the limits and coverage of the insurance, or recovery of damages outside the limits or coverage of the insurance shall be waived. A judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the action is enforceable only from the insurance coverage and not against property in the estate.

(b) Where the amount of damages sought in the action exceeds the coverage of the insurance, subdivision (a) does not apply if both of the following conditions are satisfied:

(1) The personal representative is joined as a party to the action.

(2) The plaintiff files a claim in compliance with Section 9390.

Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.