Wrongful Death

Wrongful death is a statutory civil claim allowing certain survivors—typically spouses, children, parents, or the decedent's estate—to recover damages from a defendant whose wrongful conduct caused a person's death. Unlike criminal homicide prosecutions, which seek punishment by the state and require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, wrongful death suits are pursued by private plaintiffs and generally use the lower preponderance of the evidence standard. A defendant acquitted of criminal charges can still be held civilly liable, as illustrated by the 1997 civil judgment against O.J. Simpson following his 1995 criminal acquittal.

At common law, the death of a victim extinguished any tort claim—a rule traced to the English case Baker v. Bolton (1808). Modern jurisdictions overrode this through statute. England enacted the Fatal Accidents Act 1846 (Lord Campbell's Act), and U.S. states followed with their own wrongful death and survival statutes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today every U.S. state recognizes the claim, though eligible plaintiffs, damages caps, and limitation periods vary considerably.

Recoverable damages typically include:

• Economic losses: lost future earnings, medical and funeral expenses, loss of household services.
• Non-economic losses: loss of consortium, companionship, guidance, and parental care.
• Punitive damages, in some jurisdictions, where conduct was reckless or intentional.

Wrongful death actions frequently arise in contexts including medical malpractice, motor vehicle and aviation crashes, defective products, workplace incidents, and police use of force. In the United States, suits against federal officers proceed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (1946), while claims against state actors for constitutional violations often use 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as in litigation following the 2020 deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of which produced multimillion-dollar settlements with municipal governments.

Internationally, comparable remedies exist under civil-law systems and through human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights, which has awarded compensation under Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention.