This article provides a basic description of wrongful death law, the legal status of the parties, the types of facts that can give rise to liability in wrongful death cases, the types of damages that are recoverable in such cases, and how survival rights are determined.
Proving Wrongful Death Cases
The Parties
In civil cases, when a person dies resulting from the negligence or reckless conduct of another, the lawsuit is called a wrongful death action.
The person bringing the wrongful death claim is the plaintiff, usually a member of the decedent’s immediate family.
Plaintiff’s Burden of Proof In Wrongful Death Cases
The plaintiff must file a legal action against the defendant to recover damages from the responsible party. To prevail, the plaintiff must prove their case against the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence.
Types of Recoverable Damages in Wrongful Death Cases
In wrongful death claims, most states permit the plaintiff to recover economic compensation for the loss of support, services, and comfort.
If the death is determined to result from the reckless conduct of another (such as a repeat drunk driving offender) or by intentional behavior, the plaintiffs may be entitled to also recover punitive damages against the defendant.
Different Types of Defendants in Wrongful Death Cases
In a wrongful death action, the defendant can be an individual, corporation, partnership, or public entity.
Liability Can Depend On Different Types of Factual Circumstances
- A death caused by a negligent driver
- A doctor’s malpractices resulting in the death of a patient
- An accident on an unreasonably dangerous worksite
- A drunk driver colliding with a pedestrian
- A death caused by a defective product
Death By An Automotive Product
One example of a death caused by a defective automotive product is the infamous Ford Pinto case. In this case, a compact vehicle known as the Pinto was manufactured in the 1970s by the Ford Motor Company. The car had a propensity for bursting into flames when rear-ended at high rates of speed. In one such incident, a driver was fatally burned, and her children were seriously disfigured but survived.
The family brought a wrongful death and survival action against Ford Motor Company. During the civil discovery phase, it was learned that Ford rushed the Pinto through the design and production phases to meet the expected popular market demand for the vehicle.
In doing so, the plaintiffs later determined through the civil discovery process that Ford had negligently designed the fuel tank placement under the vehicle’s rear trunk, which would ignite into flames on moderate-to-high speed rear impacts. The plaintiffs recovered
Key Damages In Wrongful Death Cases
Wrongful deaths are usually filed by the decedent’s spouse, children, or parents. The damages claimed are intended to compensate the family members for their monetary and emotional losses resulting from the death.
Loss of Financial Support Decedent Provided Family
Was the decedent a high-income earner with dependents, or was the decedent unemployed with seven years of tax returns that showed the earner made no more than $25,000 a year?
Loss of Emotional Support That Decedent Provided Family
While the decedent may not have been a high-income earner, the decedent may have been a loving, compassionate, and generous parent that devoted his life to the children and provided them with regular and valuable guidance.
Loss of Regular And Valuable Guidance To The Children
The value of that guidance and emotional support is an important element of the children’s damages claim. Translating parental guidance and emotional support into a monetary amount is ultimately the jurors’ work.
Understanding Survival Rights In Wrongful Death Cases
This issue of survival rights can be challenging to understand. This is because the parties’ rights in a survival action can resemble a hybrid between probate and personal injury cases.
In survival actions, under certain conditions, the family can recover the pain and suffering of the decedent from when the fatal injury was sustained to the time of death.
For example, in survival actions, the decedent’s executor or estate’s personal representative must first commence a probate action. After this happens, the wrongful death lawsuit can proceed in civil court.
Again, depending on the state’s laws, the probate case is, in effect, consolidated into the civil wrongful death case. This allows the family in the civil case to prove and recover damages for the decedent’s pain and suffering.
In effect, the decedent’s survival rights are being litigated within the civil wrongful death case.
Decedent’s Condition Before Passing
The intensity and duration of pain and suffering experienced by the decedent, along with the decedent’s conscious awareness of that pain and his impending death, is the central focus of the survival action.
A significant aspect of the decedent’s survival rights to damages for the pain and suffering before death depends on the following factors.
- The intensity of the pain.
- The frequency of the pain.
- The duration of the pain.
- The degree of conscious apprehension of impending death.
Survival Rights – Brought By The Estate
In a survival action, the lawsuit is brought on behalf of the decedent’s personal representative of the decedent’s estate. It is intended to compensate the decedent for the resulting expenses and for the pain and suffering of the decedent between the infliction of the injury and the time of the decedent’s death.
The Sudden Loss of A Loved One
Shock Can Be Paralyzing
When a family member or loved one is lost to a fatal accident, the last thing you want to consider is the legal ramifications of what happened. However, suppose the death was the fault of another. In that case, you must act quickly so valuable evidence is not lost or discarded.
Consulting with an experienced personal injury attorney will provide the information you need and, if retained, will gather the necessary evidence to prepare your case.
Personal Injury Attorneys
If you have questions or require additional information about your legal rights and obligations, consult a verified Personal Injury Lawyer as soon as possible.
