Hurtado v. Superior Court

Antonio Hurtado, a Mexican resident temporarily in California, was killed when the car he was riding in, driven by his cousin Manuel Cid Hurtado (defendant), collided with a truck owned by Jack Rexius (defendant), also a California resident; Antonio's Mexican-resident wife and children (plaintiffs) sued in California for wrongful death. The defendants sought to apply a Mexican statute capping wrongful-death damages, rather than California's law, which imposed no such cap; the trial court took judicial notice of the Mexican law but ultimately applied California damages law, and the appellate court, on the defendants' writ, ordered Mexican law applied instead. The plaintiffs sought review by the California Supreme Court.