Montgomery v. Brewhaha Bellevue, LLC
| Decision Date | 19 September 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 73447-4-I,73447-4-I |
| Parties | WANDA MONTGOMERY, personal representative of the Estate of the deceased, DESHAWN MILLIKEN, Respondent, and DESTINY MILLIKEN, the sister of the deceased, DESHAWN MILLIKEN, Plaintiff, v. BREWHAHA BELLEVUE, LLC, d/b/a MUNCHBAR, a Washington Limited Liability Company, and KEMPER DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, a Washington Corporation, Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Washington |
ORDER WITHDRAWING OPINION AND SUBSTITUTING OPINION
The court has determined that the opinion filed on August 8, 2016, should be withdrawn and a substitute opinion be filed. Now, therefore, it is hereby
ORDERED that the opinion filed on August 8, 2016, be withdrawn and a substitute opinion be filed.
DATED this 19th day of September, 2016.
/s/_________
/s/_________
/s/_________
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
TRICKEY, A.C.J. — The estate of DeShawn Milliken successfully sued Brewhaha, LLC ("Munchbar") for wrongful death, claiming DeShawn's daughter, Ta'riyah Smith-Milliken, as a statutory beneficiary. Munchbar contends the trial court erred when it concluded on summary judgment that Ta'riyah's birth certificate and an acknowledgment of paternity from Arizona establish paternity for purposes of the wrongful death beneficiary statute. It also argues the trial court abused its discretion when it excluded evidence of DeShawn's character and failed to provide adequate jury instructions.
Because the acknowledgment of paternity and Ta'riyah's birth certificate are presumptively valid, we grant them full faith and credit and conclude they establish DeShawn's paternity for purposes of the wrongful death beneficiary statute. We further conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded evidence of DeShawn's character, nor did the court provide any erroneous jury instructions. We affirm.
FACTS
The Munchbar was a popular sports bar in Bellevue, Washington. On the night of December 23, 2012, DeShawn Milliken and his sister Destiny went to the Munchbar to celebrate a friend's birthday. The crowd at the Munchbar was larger than usual because the Seattle Seahawks had beaten the San Francisco 49ers the same day, and Seahawks players were known to occasionally attend the Munchbar. Despite the increased attendance, Munchbar had only five or six security officers present when typically they required eleven or twelve for large crowds.
Munchbar admitted several people into the club without checking their identification to verify they were over the age of 21 and without checking for weapons. One person who entered was Ja'Mari Jones, who was 19 years old and had a loaded handgun. Destiny1 knew Jones and believed he had burglarized her mother's home and stolen $100,000 from DeShawn. A fight broke out between DeShawn and Jones.DeShawn's friend Louis Holmes also attacked Jones. Jones fired four or five shots, killing DeShawn and wounding two others.
In November 2013, DeShawn's estate and Destiny sued Munchbar. Among the plaintiffs' other claims, DeShawn's estate sought damages for his wrongful death, claiming DeShawn's daughter Ta'riyah Smith-Milliken as a statutory beneficiary. Munchbar moved for summary judgment, arguing that DeShawn's estate had no qualifying statutory wrongful death beneficiary as defined by RCW 4.20.020. Munchbar contended that Ta'riyah was not DeShawn's "child" for purposes of the statute.
Indeed, DeShawn is not Ta'riyah's biological father, nor did he adopt her. DeShawn dated Ta'riyah's mother, Denise Gilbert, during college in Arizona. They eventually separated but remained friends. DeShawn moved from Arizona to Atlanta, Georgia in late 2005. Gilbert became pregnant with Ta'riyah in early 2006, but the father died before she was born. Ta'riyah was born in December 2006. In February 2007, DeShawn began visiting Gilbert and Ta'riyah every month or every other month. He eventually moved back to Arizona before Ta'riyah's first birthday in December 2007. DeShawn and Gilbert began dating again, but they separated in 2009.
During this period, Ta'riyah considered DeShawn to be her father and called him "dad." CP at 1915. After Gilbert and DeShawn separated, Deshawn told Gilbert he still "want[ed] to be in [Ta'riyah's] life." CP at 1915. Gilbert told Deshawn CP at 1915. They developed a schedule where DeShawn would pick up Ta'riyah from daycare or preschool on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and she would stay with him those nights. This continued until DeShawnmoved to Seattle in late 2011. After DeShawn moved, he brought Ta'riyah to Seattle many times to visit his family.
In 2012, DeShawn and Gilbert created a plan for her and Ta'riyah to move to Seattle. Gilbert believed moving to Seattle to be near DeShawn would be beneficial to Ta'riyah's well-being. Before moving, DeShawn and Gilbert contacted the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Vital Records (the Department) to discuss DeShawn's desire to adopt Ta'riyah. Gilbert testified that the Department informed them that the best way to secure DeShawn's paternity over Ta'riyah would be for both him and Gilbert to appear and sign an acknowledgment of paternity.
On August 3, 2012, Gilbert and DeShawn signed an acknowledgment of paternity form in front of a witness at the Department. In accordance with the acknowledgment, the State of Arizona issued Ta'riyah an amended birth certificate naming DeShawn as her father. The birth certificate indicates it was issued on August 6, 2012.
Relying on the acknowledgment of paternity and the birth certificate from Arizona, the trial court denied Munchbar's motion for summary judgment and held that Ta'riyah qualified as a statutory beneficiary for DeShawn's wrongful death claim. Following a 9-day jury trial, the jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded DeShawn's estate $3.7 million and Destiny $520,000. Munchbar appeals.
ANALYSIS
We review summary judgment orders de novo, engaging in the same inquiry as the trial court. Michak v. Transnation Title Ins. Co., 148 Wn.2d 788, 794-95, 64 P.3d 22(2003). Summary judgment is proper if, viewing the facts and reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, no genuine issues of material fact exist and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. CR 56(c); Michak, 148 Wn.2d at 794-95. The parties agree there is no genuine issue of material fact. The sole legal question is whether Ta'ryah qualifies as a statutory beneficiary to sustain DeShawn's wrongful death lawsuit.
We will reverse a trial court's evidentiary rulings only upon a showing of abuse of discretion. Subia v. Riveland, 104 Wn. App. 105, 113-14, 15 P.3d 658 (2001). "Atrial court abuses its discretion if its decision is manifestly unreasonable or based on untenable grounds or untenable reasons." In re Marriage of Littlefield, 133 Wn.2d 39, 46-47, 940 P.2d 1362 (1997).
The main issue in this appeal is whether Ta'riyah qualifies as a statutory beneficiary to sustain DeShawn's wrongful death claim. We conclude Ta'riyah's birth certificate and acknowledgment of paternity establish DeShawn's paternity for purposes of the beneficiary statute.
The wrongful death statute authorizes the personal representative of a decedent to seek damages from the person who caused the death. But a wrongful death action may only be sustained on behalf of specific beneficiaries of the decedent. The beneficiary statute provides that every wrongful death action "shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, state registered domestic partner, child or children, including stepchildren, of the person whose death shall have been so caused." RCW 4.20.020.
Washington courts have strictly construed the list of beneficiaries in RCW 4.20.020, "extend[ing] the literal scope of such statutes only to protect beneficiaries 'clearly contemplated by the statute.'" Masunaga v. Gapasin, 57 Wn. App. 624, 631, 790 P.2d 171 (1990) (quoting Roe v. Ludtke Trucking, Inc., 46 Wn. App. 816, 819, 732 P.2d 1021 (1987). Thus, the statute's designation of "child or children, including stepchildren" only contemplates "natural or adopted children of the decedent." Armijo v. Wesselius, 73 Wn.2d 716, 719, 440 P.2d 471 (1968). Even a "parent-child like" relationship is insufficient to satisfy the statutory beneficiary requirement for a wrongful death claim. See Tait v. Wahl, 97 Wn. App. 765, 770, 987 P.2d 127 (1999) ().
The respondents do not argue that DeShawn and Ta'riyah shared a "parent-child like" relationship sufficient for the beneficiary statute. Instead, they contend that Ta'riyah's birth certificate and acknowledgment of paternity establish that Ta'riyah is DeShawn's daughter as a matter of law.
Washington courts typically must enforce birth certificates and acknowledgments of paternity from other states. The full faith and credit clause, U.S. Const. art IV § 1, requires that "where a state court has jurisdiction of the parties and subject matter, its judgment controls in other states to the same extent as it does in the state where rendered." Riley et al. v. New York Trust Co., 315 U.S. 343, 349, 62 S. Ct. 608, 612, 86 L. Ed. 885 (1942). "If the foreign court had jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter, and the foreign judgment is therefore valid where it was rendered, a court of this state must give full faith and credit to the foreign judgment and regard the issuesthereby adjudged to be precluded in a Washington proceeding." In re Estate of Wagner, 50 Wn. App. 162, 166, 748 P.2d 639 (1987). Similarly, RCW 26.26.350 specifically directs courts to "give full faith and credit to an acknowledgement or denial of paternity effective in another state if...
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