Legal Remedies Commons^™

Measuring Damages In Survival Actions For Tortious Death , Michael M. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Survival statutes have been adopted to avoid the effect of common law rules preventing claims for the tortious death of a human being. These statutes give the personal representative such causes of action on behalf of the decedent's estate as the decedent would have had were he still alive. The question the statutes do not answer, however, is the effect of the death of a party on the measure of damages. The Washington Supreme Court's decision in Warner v. McCaughan illustrates the problem. Warner arose out of the death of a twenty-one year old college student. Alleging that the death …