Brumley vs. FDCC Asbestos Case Discussion: General Motors Case Discussion

Read the discussion of the General Motors case, which is discussed in the appellate decision in Brumley, et. al vs. FDCC California, Inc. In this decedent asbestos cancer case, the plaintiffs appeal the lower court’s decision on the wrongful death claim filed on behalf of the widow and children and the widow’s loss of consortium.

We find further support for this course in General Motors. In that case, the plaintiffs, husband and wife, filed a product liability action for injuries suffered in an auto accident. Three years later, the wife died from her injuries. The husband and their children filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit, which was later consolidated with the original lawsuit under former section 377 (now § 377.62). When five years expired from the date of filing of the original lawsuit, the defendant sought its dismissal. The trial court denied the motion. (General Motors, supra, 65 Cal.2d at p. 90.)

In affirming the trial court’s decision, the Supreme Court noted that the plaintiffs were compelled by section 377 to consolidate the two actions and that it would have been inefficient to conduct two trials, since the underlying facts were identical. (General Motors, supra, 65 Cal.2d at pp. 92, 96.) The court further observed that it would have been “impracticable” to bring the wrongful death action to trial within the five years afforded the original action. (Id. at p. 97.) Accordingly, the court rejected a “mechanical application” of former section 583 that would have required dismissal of the original lawsuit. (Id. at p. 96.)

General Motors illustrates a further absurdity that would result from affirmance in these circumstances. Had plaintiffs filed a separate lawsuit for wrongful death, consolidated it with the survivorship action, and demonstrated that it was impractical to bring the wrongful death action to trial within the time allotted the survivorship action, under General Motors they would have been able to insulate the survivorship claims from the five-year rule as well as their own wrongful death and loss of consortium claims.3 As a result of their choosing the alternate course of an amended complaint, they have already been forced to concede the loss of these survivorship claims. If we affirm, plaintiffs will also lose their wrongful death and loss of consortium claims, the precise opposite of the result reached in General Motors.4

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