Opinion ID: 1382335
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Wrongful Death Suit

Text: Heather Thorson died of a gunshot wound on August 29, 2002. On August 25, 2005, Heather's grandmother, plaintiff Eleanore Thorson, filed a wrongful death suit against Elizabeth Connelly and Ronald and Betty Palmer. In her petition, Thorson claimed that Connelly negligently caused Heather Thorson's death. The circumstances of the death were described variously in the petition, which alleged that Connelly was negligent by firing the gun at Heather, or by pointing the gun at Heather when the gun accidentally discharged, or by furnishing Heather with a deadly weapon, or by negligently grabbing the gun while it was pointed at Heather causing it to discharge. The wrongful death petition further alleged that Betty and Ronald Palmer were negligent in either furnishing Connelly with a handgun or by failing to prevent her from having the gun. The petition indicated that at the time of her death, Heather Thorson was unmarried and had no children. She had no living siblings or surviving parents. She was survived only by several aunts and two grandmothers, one of whom was Eleanore Thorson, the plaintiff. Section 537.080 provides that a wrongful death suit may be brought (1) [b]y the spouse or children or the surviving lineal descendants of any deceased children, natural or adopted, legitimate or illegitimate, or by the father or mother of the deceased, natural or adoptive; (2) If there be no persons in class (1) entitled to bring the action, then by the brother or sister of the deceased, or their descendants, who can establish his or her right to those damages set out in section 537.090 because of the death. [1] Because Heather Thorson was not survived by a spouse, children, parents, siblings or nieces and nephews, the third section of section 537.080 becomes operative. Section 537.080(3) provides that, [i]f there be no persons in class (1) or (2) entitled to bring the action, then [the suit may be brought] by a plaintiff ad litem. Such plaintiff ad litem shall be appointed by the court having jurisdiction over the action for damages provided in this section upon application of some person entitled to share in the proceeds of such action. Under this provision, Eleanore Thorson, as a person entitled to share in the proceeds of such action, needed to apply to the trial court for appointment as a plaintiff ad litem in order to bring the wrongful death suit. In her initial petition, Eleanore Thorson referred to herself as plaintiff ad litem,  although she had not formally filed an application for appointment as plaintiff ad litem. In January 2006, Connelly and the Palmers, the defendants, filed motions for summary judgment, asserting that because Eleanore Thorson had failed to file an application for appointment, she lacked standing to bring the wrongful death suit. In response to the motion, Eleanore Thorson, on January 30, 2006, filed an application for appointment as plaintiff ad litem, requesting to represent the interests of all persons entitled to share in the proceeds of this case. Eleanore Thorson asked that the trial court recognize that her requests to proceed as a plaintiff ad litem in the initial filings constitute her application to proceed in that capacity  in other words, that the request for appointment relates back to the original filing. Eleanore Thorson also specifically asked that the order appointing her plaintiff ad litem be made retroactive to the date of [the initial] filing, because at the time of the formal application for appointment, the three-year statute of limitations governing wrongful death suits had run. See section 537.100, which provides that [e]very action instituted under section 537.080 shall be commenced within three years after the cause of action shall accrue. . . . Without the application of the relation-back doctrine to her application for appointment, that application would have been filed outside of the three-year statute of limitations  too late to give Thorson authority to bring the suit. The trial court granted both motions for summary judgment in July 2006, concluding that Thorson lacked standing to bring the wrongful death suit and dismissed the suit with prejudice. After opinion in the court of appeals, this Court granted transfer. This Court has jurisdiction. Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 10.