Opinion ID: 1060409
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: general application of the common fund doctrine to the proceeds of a wrongful death action

Text: No case from this Court has expressly recognized that the common fund doctrine may be applied to the proceeds of a wrongful death action, although the Court of Appeals has done so in at least three unreported cases. [7] However, the common law does not prevent the doctrine from being applied in such an action, as the doctrine can be applie[d] generally to all funds [that are] created, increased[,] or preserved by a party in which others have an ownership interest. Scholtens v. Schneider, 173 Ill.2d 375, 219 Ill.Dec. 490, 671 N.E.2d 657, 663 (1996); see also Edwards v. Alaska Pulp Corp., 920 P.2d 751, 755 (Alaska 1996) (The common fund doctrine is implicated any time one litigant's success releases well-defined benefits for a limited and identifiable group.). In fact, the only restriction against applying the doctrine in Tennessee is that attorneys' fees may not be taken from a portion of the fund that is subject to a lien or other interest superior to that of the common beneficiaries. See Bird v. Collette, 26 Tenn.App. 181, 185, 168 S.W.2d 797, 799 (1942). Nevertheless, even when a common fund has been created, application of the common fund doctrine to spread attorneys' fees among the fund's beneficiaries may not always be advisable. The United States Supreme Court has recognized that application of the doctrine is warranted only when the number of beneficiaries is relatively small and their identities are easily discovered; when the benefits accruing to each beneficiary can be determined with some accuracy; and when the attorneys' fees can be shifted with some exactitude to those benefiting. See Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert, 444 U.S. 472, 478, 100 S.Ct. 745, 62 L.Ed.2d 676 (1980); Alyeska Pipeline Serv. Co. v. Wilderness Soc'y, 421 U.S. 240, 265 n. 39, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975). Several other states have also used these considerations to decide whether application of the common fund doctrine would be proper in any given case. [8] We conclude that application of the common fund doctrine in the wrongful death context will rarely be inappropriate. Undeniably, a party's successful efforts in bringing a wrongful death suit result in creating a fund in which multiple parties may claim an ownership interest. These beneficiaries stand on equal footing as claimants against the fund, with no interest in the proceeds being subordinate or superior to another. [9] Moreover, the beneficiaries of wrongful death proceeds are usually small in number, and their identities are virtually always known. Finally, a court can accurately determine the respective shares of the fund accruing to each beneficiary, and it can spread a proportionate share of attorneys' fees to each beneficiary with some exactitude. Accordingly, we hold that a trial court may, in its discretion, apply the common fund doctrine in a successful wrongful death action, thereby requiring the passive beneficiaries to pay a reasonable attorneys' fee to the party bringing the action.