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Tort Reform Damage Caps in California, and Beyond

BY David M. Axelrad
March 31, 2009

In last month's newsletter we looked at California's 25-year-old medical malpractice award damage cap legislation ' the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) ' and began to explore arguments for and against its constitutionality. We now continue that discussion.

Usurping Judicial Powers

Plaintiffs in California have also contended recently that, by enacting the noneconomic damage limitation statute as part of MICRA, the legislature infringed on the judiciary's powers in violation of the California Constitution. See Cal. Const., art. III, ' 3 (“The powers of state government are legislative, executive, and judicial. Persons charged with the exercise of one power may not exercise either of the others except as permitted by this Constitution”); art. VI, ' 1 (“The judicial power of this State is vested in the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and superior courts, all of which are courts of record”); see generally People v. Bunn (2002) 27 Cal.4th 1, 14.) According to this argument, the legislature's enactment improperly takes over the purely judicial function of determining the maximum award of noneconomic damages. But the legislature's action was well within its constitutional role. (See Fein, supra, 38 Cal.3d at p. 1574 (“'the Legislature possesses broad authority to modify the scope and nature of [a plaintiff's] damages'”).

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