Schmidt's Estate, In re
| Decision Date | 18 April 1968 |
| Citation | 261 Cal.App.2d 262,67 Cal.Rptr. 847 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | In the Matter of the ESTATE of Max SCHMIDT, Deceased. Clinton V. IRVING, Jr., Executor of the Estate of Patricia C. Schmidt, Deceased, Petitioner and Respondent, v. Robert M. SCHMIDT, Beverly Schmidt McCarthy, Geraldine Schmidt Cohn, and Robert M. Schmidt as Administrator of the Estate of Max Schmidt, Deceased, Objectors and Appellants. Civ. 24621. |
Carr, McClellan, Ingersoll, Thompson & Horn, by Luther M. Carr, David C. Carr, Burlingame, Gordon & Welch, by Steven H. Welch, Jr., Martinez, for appellants.
Cerf, Robinson & Leland, San Francisco, Bernheim, Sugarman, Gilbert & Straughn, Richmond, for respondent.
After Max Schmidt (hereafter Max) and his wife Patricia were killed in a tragic automobile accident, the executor of her estate filed this proceeding to determine heirship, pursuant to the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, sections 296--296.8 of the Probate Code. The heirs and administrator of Max's estate appeal from a judgment decreeing that Patricia was the surviving spouse of Max and an heir of his estate, contending that there was no sufficient evidence that Max and Patricia died otherwise than simultaneously, or to determine the order in which they died, and that the trial court erred in its definition of death.
The basic facts are not in dispute. Max and Patricia Schmidt had been married a little over a year and were living at their home in Danville. Max had three adult children (appellants herein) by his former marriage. Patricia had five-and three-year-old sons by her prior marriage who lived with her but had not been adopted by Max. Patricia left a will in favor of her sons and named her father (respondent herein) as executor; Max left no will.
About 5:15 p.m. on December 13, 1964, the white Cadillac in which the Schmidts and Patricia's two sons were riding collided head-on with a maroon Pontiac driven by Edwin Van Sciver on Interstate Highway 680, a two-lane highway near Danville in Contra Costa County. Both Vehicles were going at least 55 miles per hour. In each instance, the wives were in the front seat as passengers. Patricia's two small sons were riding in the back seat of the Cadillac. By the time the highway patrol arrived about 5:30 p.m., all six occupants of both cars were determined to be dead.
The sole question presented to the trial court was whether or not there was sufficient evidence that Patricia survived Max during the 15--20 minutes that elapsed between the impact of the collision and the
arrival of the highway patrol officers. The trial court's findings were based on the expert [261 Cal.App.2d 265] witnesses' evaluation and interpretation of the facts disclosed by the testimony of the lay eyewitnesses and the autopsy reports. Accordingly, we will set forth these facts in the light most favorable to the judgment.
Everett White, an ambulance driver, stated that when he arrived about 5:20 or 5:25 p.m., there were 8 to 15 cars parked at the scene. After seeing that both of the little boys were getting some attention, White first checked Max and felt no pulse or heart beat and no respiration. He then went to the passenger side of the car and could not get the door open. Patricia also had no pulse, heartbeat or respiration, but was bleeding profusely. Max was not bleeding; his face was yellow and his eyes open.
Donald R. Wilcox, a former military policeman trained in accident investigation, saw the flash of the lights of the accident about 5:15 p.m. and was the third car to stop at the scene. He opened the door on the driver's side of the Cadillac and turned the beam of his flashlight on Max. Max's eyes were open but there was no reaction. Wilcox then proceeded to the passenger side of the Cadillac but was unable to open the door. However, through the broken window, he was able to remove a large piece of the windshield that had fallen on Patricia, who was wedged between the dashboard and floor. When he did so, she moved, gasped for breath and made moaning sounds. She was bleeding profusely from both ears. He decided that he could not do anything for her and proceeded to see about the boys and the occupants of the Pontiac. Later, Wilcox returned to the Cadillac and noticed that Patricia had her head all the way up. She had turned quite pale, was gasping in quick deep breaths, and still bleeding from both ears. He took her pulse which was slow but strong, about five beats in a minute and a half. This occurred about 20 minutes after he had first seen the flash of lights from the accident. During the entire time of this witness' observation, Max stayed in the same slumped position on the driver's side of the car. Whenever Wilcox put his flashlight to Patricia's face, her right eye would twitch. Mrs. Wilcox took a brief look and also noted that Max was not moving or breathing at all but that Patricia was breathing and bleeding from her ears.
As to Max, the report indicated serious injuries to the chest and heart of the kind frequently observed in steering wheel injuries. The heart was almost completely separated from the inferior vena cava. 1 A very deep penetration wound through the anterior wall of the left ventricular cavity allowed communication of the left ventricular cavity with the exterior of the heart. The left side of Max's chest contained about 2500 ml. of deep red blood. Some blood was also found in the right side of the chest. The pericardial sac 2 was larcerated with some blood in its posterior portion. There were numerous rib fractures on each side as well as a complete transverse fracture of the upper portion of the rib cage. Max's lungs were essentially normal in structure. An extensive traumatic lesion over the left side of the face around the left eye extended down across the upper portion of the left cheek and face. The pupils were markedly dilated to a diameter of 6 mm. Both legs were fractured.
As to Patricia, the autopsy report indicated a large amount of blood in the hair and smeared over the face. Blood was also found within the exterior aural canals, the nose and the mouth. The left side of the face was markedly distorted by multiple skull fractures extending across the upper portion of the face in a 'butterfly-shaped' The coroner's report stated that both Max and Patricia died at 5:30 p.m. from cranial and intra-cranial trauma. As both deaths resulted from bodily injuries consistent with a motor vehicle accident, no intra-cranial examinations or pathological analyses were undertaken.
laceration, and a fracture below the nasal bridge. The pupils were round and regular, each about 5 mm. in diameter. Patricia's heart was entirely normal in all respects with a small amount of blood from an undetermined source in each side of the chest. There was a rather extensive hemorrhage in the mediastinal 3 connective tissues, especially among the vertebral column. The lungs were normal in structure but quite heavy due to rather extensive stasis 4 of blood within the pulmonary tissues, especially in the posterior segments. There was some blood within the bronchial lumens but of insufficient amount to cause obstruction of the respiratory passages. There was also a fracture of the upper portion of the left leg, just below the knee joint, and of each ankle.
The experts agreed that the autopsy reports (undertaken for the coroner's purpose of eliminating unlawful causes of death) were incomplete and that only complete intra-cranial examinations of Max and Patricia would provide the information necessary for a precise determination of the cause of death of each. However, respondent's experts stated that a determination of who died first was possible within reasonable medical certainty and that Max died first. 5
Most of the experts disagreed with the coroner's conclusions that Max's death was caused by his head injuries and agreed that he died very quickly of the massive injuries to his heart. Max could not have survived the impact of the collision for more than 1--2 minutes. This conclusion was based on the absence of any pulmonary congestion and the time it would take to pump the large amount of blood (nearly half the body's total blood volume) into his chest. 6 The estimates by respondent's experts as to how long the brain could survive without a blood supply from the heart ranged from 2--8 minutes. 7
As Patricia had no injuries below her neck that could have caused her death, all of the experts agreed that she died of a brain injury. However, there was some disagreement, even among respondent's experts, as to the precise nature of the fatal injury. Dr. Fraser, the Coroner of Contra Costa County with 40 years' experience as a general practitioner, thought that Patricia died of an injury to the pons, the respiratory center of the brain. The stasis in her lungs indicated that her heart was pumping. In his opinion, she survived the impact by 5--10 minutes and was alive when Mr. Wilcox heard her gasp.
Dr. Biskind, a pathologist, stated that Patricia died of a massive intra-cranial hemorrhage as evidenced by the bleeding from the ears. To build up the amount of congestion reported in her lungs, Patricia must have survived the impact by 10--15 minutes.
Dr. Lindsey, another pathologist, indicated that Patricia died from pulmonary congestion resulting from her head injury. If she had died in 1--2 minutes, her lungs would have been normal instead of heavy, as there would not have been time for the blood to back up into the lungs. The kind of pulmonary congestion indicated would require from 5--15 minutes.
Dr. Curphey, a forensic pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner of Los Angeles County, stated that Patricia died of a typical severe deceleration accident, in which the odds were 100 to 1 a primary brain stem injury. The...
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