Opinion ID: 3172269
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Georgia’s Wrongful Death Statute

Text: Turning to the state law claims, we note that the plaintiffs expressly abandoned nearly all of their claims, advancing only what they call a “claim of wrongful death pursuant to the Georgia Wrongful Death statute”: Appellants abandon the following state law claims against the Appellees: battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, false arrest, and false imprisonment under Title 51 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, as well as abuse during the course of an arrest in violation of Art. I, § I, ¶ 17 of the Georgia Constitution. Appellants intend on proceeding under the claim of wrongful death pursuant to the Georgia Wrongful Death statute. The plaintiffs’ briefs on appeal describe that claim as “the pendant state law claim[] for wrongful death.” The plaintiffs argue that, contrary to the district court’s finding, the defendant officers are not entitled to official immunity from the wrongful death claim under Georgia law because they acted with actual malice or intent to cause injury. Although Mrs. Felio is not the administrator of her husband’s estate, she (and not the estate) may pursue a state law claim for the wrongful death of her husband under Georgia law. Ga. Code Ann. § 51-4-2(a). The Georgia Wrongful Death statute provides that “[t]he surviving spouse . . . may recover for the homicide of the spouse . . . the full value of the life of the decedent, as shown by the evidence.” Id. The statute states that “[h]omicide includes all cases in which 13 Case: 14-15702 Date Filed: 01/26/2016 Page: 14 of 17 the death of a human being results from a crime, from criminal or other negligence, or from property which has been defectively manufactured, whether or not as the result of negligence.” Id. § 51-4-1(2) (emphasis added) (quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, a surviving spouse will succeed on a wrongful death claim if she can establish that the defendant negligently caused her husband’s death. See, e.g., Bradley Ctr., Inc. v. Wessner, 296 S.E.2d 693 (Ga. 1982) (upholding a jury award in a wrongful death case in which the decedent’s children, who had survivorship rights, established that a mental facility was negligent in caring for the patient who killed their mother); see also Mowell v. Marks, 603 S.E.2d 702, 704 (Ga. Ct. App. 2004) (“[A] suit for wrongful death . . . is derivative to the decedent’s right of action. A survivor cannot recover for the decedent’s wrongful death if the decedent could not have recovered in his or her own right.” (alteration in original) (quotation marks omitted)). The defendant officers argue that Mrs. Felio has not adequately pled the wrongful death claim. We disagree. Mrs. Felio’s complaint referred to both negligence and Title 51 of the Georgia Code, which contains the Wrongful Death Statute. Her brief on appeal, quoted above, did not list the negligence claim as abandoned, and the defendant officers acknowledge this fact in their brief on appeal. Given the record as a whole, it is clear that Mrs. Felio’s negligence claim, which she alleged in the complaint and carried through to this appeal, is her 14 Case: 14-15702 Date Filed: 01/26/2016 Page: 15 of 17 wrongful death claim. After all, the Wrongful Death Statute is the state statute that gives her a cause of action to recover damages for the officers’ allegedly negligent roles in causing her husband’s death. See Ga. Code Ann. § 51-4-2(a) (creating the wrongful death cause of action for the surviving spouse).