Going through the grieving process after losing a loved one can put an emotional and financial strain on any family. In Pennsylvania, families of the deceased have legal options at their disposal to recover compensation from the person or entity responsible for an untimely and wrongful death.
There are two specific types of actions: wrongful death lawsuits and survival actions. A survival action benefits the estate, while a wrongful death lawsuit benefits the surviving beneficiaries. A beneficiary could be a parent, spouse, or child of the deceased. These beneficiaries could recover for their losses, including but not limited to funeral expenses, medical bills, loss of companionship and guidance.
Call The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 515-9481 for a free case review with our Philadelphia wrongful death lawyers.
Determining if You Have a Wrongful Death Claim in Pennsylvania
The first step in your journey toward recovery for your untimely loss is determining whether you have a viable case of wrongful death.
Requirements
In Pennsylvania, the guidelines of a valid wrongful death claim are laid out in 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 8301, also known as the Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Act. According to the statute, wrongful death claims exist where the defendant was negligent, reckless, or intentional in their conduct that ultimately caused the death. These instances of conduct are referred to as “wrongful acts.”
Similarity to Personal Injury Claims
It can be helpful to think of a wrongful act as something that would give rise to a personal injury lawsuit if the deceased had survived their injuries.
Examples
For instance, if a drunk driver caused an accident that injured the victim, the victim would be able to sue the drunk driver for causing their injuries and recover damages for their harms. Therefore, the beneficiaries of a wrongful death suit against the drunk driver could likely recover for their own harms.
Some other common wrongful act that can lead to liability for a death include medical malpractice, failure to disclose the existence of toxic chemicals on a worksite, and intentional violent crimes.
What is Considered a Wrongful Death in Pennsylvania?
“Wrongful death” covers many untimely and accidental deaths, but someone must have also done something wrong to cause the death.
Examples
A “wrongful death” includes any death that happens through an accident or other mistake. This includes all kinds of common accident types if they become fatal:
- Car accidents
- Slip and falls (e.g., involving serious head trauma)
- Other premises liability claims (e.g., building fires, structural collapses)
- Product injury and defective product cases
- Auto defects
- Medical malpractice
- Construction accidents
- Workplace accidents.
Elements
To prove that a death is “wrongful,” you usually must show that negligence caused the injury by proving four elements:
- Duty – The defendant owed the victim a legal duty
- Breach – The defendant breached or violated that duty
- Causation – That breach caused the victim’s fatal accident
- Damages – The victim’s death itself, plus the damages that the family suffers, meet this element.
Intentional killings can also be grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit against the killer.
Legal Options
The family is often entitled to compensation for a wrongful death. This allows the victim’s children, spouse, and parents to recover compensation for the economic and non-economic damages they suffered.
You can typically file both a wrongful death lawsuit to compensate the family members directly, plus a survival action to recover damages the victim would have been entitled to sue for in a wrongful death lawsuit if they survived the accident.
Can You File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit for Work Accidents?
If your loved one was killed at work, you might not be able to sue their employer. However, if they were an independent contractor, then that right is still available.
Instead, you can sue other parties who might have caused their death, such as…
- Drivers
- Customers
- Clients
- Equipment manufacturers
- Defective safety gear manufacturers
- Suppliers and vendors.
Does Murder Count as Wrongful Death?
Murder, manslaughter, and other forms of homicide can also be the basis of a wrongful death claim. Just because there is a criminal case doesn’t stop you from suing the person who killed your loved one as well.
In fact, many criminal cases that ultimately fail to convict the defendant can still succeed as wrongful death claims because of the lower burden of proof.
Wrongful Death Lawsuit vs. Survival Action in Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Act provides two measures of civil recourse in instances of a wrongful death: wrongful death lawsuits and survival actions.
Both Claims Are Available
Both of these civil actions must show that the defendant was negligently, recklessly, or intentionally responsible for the wrongful death. The existence of an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit does not preclude a survival action, and vice versa. For this reason, many wrongful deaths result in both a wrongful death lawsuit and a survival action being brought simultaneously.
Different Purposes
The goal of a wrongful death lawsuit is to compensate the loved ones and family members of the deceased for what they have lost as a result of the defendant’s conduct. Conversely, a survival action is meant to make the deceased’s estate whole.
Damages Available
Therefore, the main difference between the two actions is how the damages are calculated and to whom they are awarded. A successful wrongful death lawsuit will provide damages directly to the named beneficiaries in the proportions specified by the court (or settlement).
How Damages Are Paid Out
In a survival action, the damages are awarded directly to the deceased’s estate. Survival actions are subject to various taxes, unlike wrongful death claims, and can be used to pay back estate creditors.
Once the estate receives the compensation, the money will be distributed according to the terms of the deceased’s will. If the deceased did not have a valid will, the compensation will go through the probate process.
The Process of Filing a Wrongful Death Claim in Pennsylvania
Filing By Executor
Typically, the representative (or “executor”) of the deceased’s estate is the one who files the wrongful death lawsuit or survival action in Pennsylvania.
The executor typically has an easier time identifying the potential beneficiaries of the lawsuit. Placing the responsibility with that individual removes a lot of the confusion from the process.
The executor can also be a beneficiary to the lawsuit (e.g., the victim’s spouse) and still serve in their role.
Options if Executor Hasn’t Filed
The executor has complete control over the decision to file a survival action to benefit the estate. However, if the executor fails to file a wrongful death lawsuit within six months of the date of death, the ability to file is then opened up to any potential beneficiary.
These beneficiaries must still make reasonable efforts to identify and notify all possible beneficiaries to the suit so that they can elect (or decline) to be named in the claim prior to its filing.
Parties that Can Recover in a Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Lawsuit
By now, you have heard us reference “beneficiaries” quite a bit on this page. But who is eligible to be named as a beneficiary in a wrongful death lawsuit in Pennsylvania?
Spouse, Children, and Parents
According to § 8301(b) of the Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Act, potential beneficiaries of a wrongful death suit include only spouses, children, and parents of the deceased. You can name as many individuals who fit these criteria.
Damages Paid Per Person
Damages are essentially paid to each person harmed by the death. Courts, therefore, typically award more damages where there are more beneficiaries who were harmed by the loss of the deceased, so you should not worry about reducing any possible party’s own recovery.
Identifying All Beneficiaries
Additionally, wrongful death filers are required by state law to make reasonable efforts to identify and provide notice to all potential beneficiaries prior to filing, which is something our Allentown, PA wrongful death lawyers can help with.
Calculating Damages for a Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Pennsylvania
When a wrongful death lawsuit is successful, the Pennsylvania court will order the defendant to pay “damages” in line with the beneficiaries’ losses.
Factors
These losses are calculated along a number of different theories and depend on substantially specific factors. These factors may include the deceased’s age, life expectancy, and income level. Estimating what you stand to gain through a wrongful death lawsuit can be difficult without consulting a resourceful Pennsylvania wrongful death attorney.
Expenses and Financial Harm
The total compensation package could include financial losses due to the direct expenses associated with the death, such as funeral expenses, medical treatment costs, and estate administration fees. A wrongful death lawsuit could also recover damages for the beneficiaries’ loss of comfort, guidance, companionship, as well as the benefits from any of the deceased’s expected future income or benefits, such as insurance or pension plans.
Lost Services
You can also recover for lost services that the deceased provided. Specifically, this typically refers to the deceased’s ability to provide childcare to their family and will be calculated based on the cost of replacing this service.
However, this theory may include more than just the cost of replacement childcare. In recent years, Pennsylvania courts have adopted the meaning of “services” to include the harm of “profound emotional and psychological loss suffered” from the wrongful death.
Punitive Damages in a Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Pennsylvania law also allows beneficiaries to seek punitive damages for a wrongful death in certain cases. Punitive damages fall under an additional theory of compensation that depends on the conduct of the defendant as opposed to the harms suffered by the beneficiaries.
When Available
Punitive damages are not available in every case. A jury will only order a defendant to pay punitive damages where the wrongful conduct was particularly reckless, malicious, or heinous. Intentional violent crimes, drunk driving accidents, and situations where a grossly reckless defendant had a significant power advantage over the defendant (e.g., doctor to patient or large employer to employee) may commonly give rise to punitive damages.
Caps
Where punitive damages are available, Pennsylvania law caps the total amount according to the rest of the recovery.
A wrongful death lawsuit can return punitive damages up to two times the total amount of the rest of the damages. For instance, if the total non-punitive damage calculation is $2 million, the court can award up to $4 million in additional punitive damages.
Effect of Other Legal Cases on a Wrongful Death Claim
Criminal Cases Are Separate
Wrongful death lawsuits likely will not be influenced by the existence or outcome of a criminal case against the defendant concerning the same events. A criminal case is brought and run by the government and may result in fines or prison time for the defendant, depending on the nature of the misconduct.
Restitution from Criminal Cases
However, the families will not see any compensation from these fines, so if you are interested in pursuing your own justice for a loved one’s wrongful death, you should speak to our Pennsylvania wrongful death lawyers about your own civil case.
Different Standards for Criminal and Civil Cases
If the defendant is found not guilty in their criminal trial, you should not be discouraged from filing your wrongful death claim. In a criminal case, the prosecution faces a high burden of proof for its case. They must prove that the defendant is guilty of the charges “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This is much harder to prove than the burden for a wrongful death claim, which must be proved “by a preponderance of the evidence.” Essentially, to prevail in a wrongful death civil claim, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant was substantially more likely than not responsible for the death.
Pre-Death Lawsuits
If the deceased filed a personal injury lawsuit for negligence against the responsible party while still alive and recovered before passing away, a wrongful death lawsuit is still available. That lawsuit is the same lawsuit as the survival action, so you may not be able to file that after the death.
In any case, anything already paid through a pre-death lawsuit cannot be claimed again (e.g., lost wages between the injury and the death).
Statute of Limitations for Filing a Wrongful Death Claim in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations is two years. This two-year clock starts at the date of the death, rather than the date of the accident that caused the death.
Exceptions
Certain exceptions to the statute of limitations do exist, such as where the wrongful cause of death is not immediately known by the surviving beneficiaries. However, you should not rely on these exceptions as a reason to delay your action.
When to Call a Lawyer
The process of preparing to file a wrongful death claim can be lengthy and complex, particularly in situations where there are multiple beneficiaries or defendants. We strongly recommend that you contact one of our Pennsylvania wrongful death attorneys as soon as possible if you believe you may have a case.
FAQs for Wrongful Death Claims in Pennsylvania
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
The wrongful death lawsuit is filed by the executor of the victim’s estate. This person is either appointed in the victim’s will or set by the courts, and it is usually a close family member (e.g., their spouse or parent).
Who Benefits from Wrongful Death Lawsuits?
A wrongful death lawsuit seeks to pay the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the victim for the harm they suffer because of the death. This includes things like burial costs, lost financial support, and lost companionship.
What is a Survival Action?
Along with a wrongful death lawsuit, the executor can also file a survival action. This seeks to pay the victim’s estate back for the damages the victim suffered while still alive. That includes things like their pre-death pain and suffering, end-of-life medical care, and pre-death lost wages.
When Can You File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
Wrongful death lawsuits are available when your loved one died because of someone else’s negligence or mistakes. This requires a breach of legal duty that caused the death.
What is the Statute of Limitations?
Wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within 2 years of the death.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Our attorneys cannot determine what your case is worth without a comprehensive case evaluation looking into your loved one’s death, the causes, their lost wages, and the damages your family suffered from the death.
When Should I Call a Lawyer?
You should contact a lawyer as soon as you can. There are steps to take to get an executor appointed to file the lawsuit, and you should never delay in filing because of the short statute of limitations.
Get Started on Your Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Pennsylvania Today
Call The Reiff Law Firm for a free case review today at (215) 515-9481.
Related Posts
