On Feb. 14, 2014, at approximately 8 p.m., claimant’s decedent Oscar Vasquez, 28, a musician, was out to dinner with his girlfriend in Pacific Palisades when he went outside to get some fresh air. As he was crossing Pacific Coast Highway in a marked crosswalk, at its intersection with Temescal Canyon Road, Vasquez was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. Vasquez suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and ultimately died two weeks later. The operator of the subject vehicle was identified by eyewitnesses as being Anna Soon Ma. She was subsequently arrested three days after the accident, and charged with felony hit and run homicide. Ma is awaiting her criminal trial. The decedent’s parents, Norberto Vasquez and Dolores Ramirez, who were acting individually and as the legal heirs to their son’s estate, sued Ma and the owner of Ma’s vehicle, Anthony Puopolo, who was Ma’s son-in-law. The decedent’s parents alleged that Ma was negligent in the operation of her vehicle and that Puopolo was statutorily liable for Ma’s actions. Claimants’ counsel contended that the decedent entered the subject intersection, which was controlled by a yellow flashing light, in a marked crosswalk and that two vehicles traveling on Pacific Coast Highway stopped for the decedent. However, counsel contended that a third vehicle, operated by Ma, failed to stop and struck the decedent, who was still in the crosswalk. Claimants’ counsel asserted that Ma was liable for a felony hit-and-run, as Ma exited her vehicle after the accident, observed the decedent lying on the roadway, got back into her vehicle and fled the scene., Oscar Vasquez sustained blunt force trauma to the head and was subsequently transported to UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury, requiring extensive emergency operations on his brain. He was then transferred to a rehabilitation facility, where he eventually passed away two weeks later due to complications from the severe TBI. He was 28. The decedent’s parents, as his legal heirs, sought recovery of non-economic wrongful death damages for the loss of their son’s love, care, comfort and society. They also sought recovery of $450,000 in medical costs.