In McKinney v. California Portland Cement Co. (2002) 96 Cal.App.4th 1214, Division One of this court held that Social Security death benefits arising upon the application of a wife after her husband's death were a "classic collateral source," and therefore properly excluded from evidence in the wife's wrongful death action against manufacturers of asbestos products. (Id. at p. 1226.) In McKinney, the court held that the collateral source rule effectively precluded the defendants from offering evidence that the plaintiff never really suffered the damages she claimed (her husband's Social Security retirement benefits) because those damages were being reimbursed by a collateral source (wife's Social Security death benefit). Consequently, for purposes of assessing damages, the wife was allowed to seek reimbursement for the loss of the Social Security benefits her deceased husband was receiving during his lifetime without the jury learning that she was receiving a roughly equivalent amount in death benefits from Social Security as his survivor. (Id. at pp. 1221-1222.)