Opinion ID: 1060766
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Heading: Development of Wrongful Death Statute

Text: A wrongful death cause of action did not exist at common law. See Annotation, Modern Status of Rule Denying a Common-Law Recovery for Wrongful Death, 61 A.L.R.3d 906 (1975). Pursuant to the common law, actions for personal injuries that resulted in death terminated at the victim's death because in a civil court the death of a human being could not be complained of as an injury. W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 127, at 945 (5th ed. 1984) ( Prosser ). The [legal] result was that it was cheaper for the defendant to kill the plaintiff than to injure him, and that the most grievous of all injuries left the bereaved family of the victim . . . without a remedy. Id. This rule of non-liability for wrongful death was previously the prevailing view in both England and in the United States. East Tennessee V. & G. Ry. Co. v. Lilly, 90 Tenn. 563, 18 S.W. 243, 244 (Tenn 1891); Hall v. Nashville & C.R. Co., 1 Shan. 141 (Tenn.1859). In 1846, the British Parliament enacted a wrongful death statute designed to abrogate the common law rule's harsh effect of denying recovery for personal injuries resulting in death. The English statute was referred to as Lord Campbell's Act and created a cause of action for designated survivors that accrued upon the tort victim's death. See Malone, The Genesis of Wrongful Death, 17 Stan. L.Rev. 1043, 1051 (1965); Prosser, § 127, at 945. Jurisdictions in the United States were quick to follow England's lead. Id. In 1847, New York became the first American jurisdiction to enact a wrongful death statute. Speiser, Recovery for Wrongful Death and Injury, § 1:9 (3d ed. 1992). Presently, every jurisdiction in the United States has a wrongful death statute. Id.; see also Prosser, § 127, at 945. These statutes, including that of Tennessee, embody the substantive provisions of Lord Campbell's Act and permit designated beneficiaries to recover losses sustained as a result of the tort victim's death. Dixie Ohio Exp. Co. v. Butler, 179 Tenn. 358, 166 S.W.2d 614, 615 (Tenn.1942); East Tennessee, 18 S.W. at 244. Tennessee was one of the earliest states to abrogate judicially [t]he artificial rule of the common law that every right of action for personal injury died with the person injured. East Tennessee, 18 S.W. at 244. As early as 1836, the Tennessee legislature enacted a statute providing for the survival of all civil actions for which suit had been commenced prior to the victim's death. [3] In 1850, our legislature made its initial attempt to permit recovery in wrongful death cases. The legislation permitted a recovery for wrongful death by enacting legislation that permitted a personal representative to bring an action on behalf of a widow or next of kin for the wrongful death of the victim regardless of whether suit had been commenced prior to the death. [4] This statute underwent revisions in 1851 [5] and 1877 [6] which moved the law closer to its present form. Thus, prior to 1850, Tennessee adhered to the common law rule that, upon the death of the victim, no cause of action for damages could be brought by the estate of the deceased for the benefit of third parties, such as family members, who sustained losses as a result of the death. See Daniel v. East Tenn. Coal Co., 105 Tenn. 470, 58 S.W. 859, 860 (Tenn.1900); Chambers v. Porter, 45 Tenn. 273, 276 (1868). After more than a century of piecemeal revision by the legislature and interpretation by the courts, Tennessee's modern wrongful death law has taken shape. See generally, T.A. Smedley, Wrongful Death Actions in Tennessee, 27 Tenn. L.Rev. 447 (1960). Our present wrongful death statutes are substantially similar to the early codifications abandoning the rule of non-liability for wrongful death. Specifically, Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-102, the direct descendent of the 1836 statute, provides that [n]o civil action commenced, whether founded on wrongs or contracts, except actions for wrongs affecting the character of the plaintiff, shall abate by the death of either party . . .; nor shall any right of action arising hereafter based on the wrongful act or omission of another, except actions for wrongs affecting the character, be abated by the death of the party wronged; but the right of action shall pass in like manner as [described in Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-106]. Moreover, Tenn Code Ann. § 20-5-106, the modern version of the 1877 statute, provides in part: The right of action which a person, who dies from injuries received from another, or whose death is caused by the wrongful act, omission, or killing by another, would have had against the wrongdoer, in case death had not been ensued, shall not abate or be extinguished by the person's death but shall pass to the person's surviving spouse and, in case there is no surviving spouse, to the person's children or next of kin; or to the person's personal representative, for the benefit of the person's surviving spouse or next of kin. Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-106(a). Thus, an examination of the development of Tennessee's wrongful death law, from its inception to the present, establishes that the right of recovery in a wrongful death case is strictly a creation of statute. See Hogan v. McDaniel, 204 Tenn. 235, 319 S.W.2d 221, 222-23 (Tenn.1958); Jamison v. Memphis Transit Management Co., 381 F.2d 670, 673 (6th Cir.1967). Because a cause of action for wrongful death is a creation of statute, recoverable damages must be determined by reference to the particular statute involved. Although all states have abolished the rule of non-liability when personal injury results in death, the statutory methods of doing so fall into two distinct categorieswrongful death statutes and survival statutes. See Sea-Land Servs., Inc. v. Gaudet, 414 U.S. 573, 575 n. 2, 94 S.Ct. 806, 39 L.Ed.2d 9 (1974). The majority of states have enacted survival statutes. These statutes permit the victim's cause of action to survive the death, so that the victim, through the victim's estate, recovers damages that would have been recovered by the victim had the victim survived. Sea-Land, 414 U.S. at 575 n. 2, 94 S.Ct. 806; Recovery for Wrongful Death at § 1:15; Prosser, § 126, at 942-43. Survival statutes do not create a new cause of action; rather, the cause of action vested in the victim at the time of death is transferred to the person designated in the statutory scheme to pursue it, and the action is enlarged to include damages for the death itself. Prosser, § 126, at 942-43. [T]he recovery is the same one the decedent would have been entitled to at death, and thus included such items as wages lost after injury and before death, medical expenses incurred, and pain and suffering, and other appropriate compensatory damages suffered by the victim from the time of injury to the time of death. Id. at 943. In contrast to survival statutes, pure wrongful death statutes create a new cause of action in favor of the survivors of the victim for their loss occasioned by the death. Recovery for Wrongful Death at § 1:13; William T. Gamble, Actions for Wrongful Death in Tennessee, 4 Vand. L.Rev. 289, 290 (1950). These statutes proceed on the theory of compensating the individual beneficiaries for the loss of the economic benefit which they might reasonably have expected to receive from the decedent in the form of support, services or contributions during the remainder of [the decedent's] lifetime if [the decedent] had not been killed. Prosser, § 127, at 949. Hence, most wrongful death jurisdictions have adopted a pecuniary loss standard of recovery, allowing damages for economic contributions the deceased would have made to the survivors had death not occurred and for the economic value of the services the deceased would have rendered to the survivors but for the death. Recovery for Wrongful Death at § 3:1. Tennessee's approach to providing a remedy for death resulting from personal injury is a hybrid between survival and wrongful death statutes, resulting in a statutory scheme with a split personality. 27 Tenn. L.Rev. at 454. The pertinent damages statute, Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-113, has been in existence in one form or another since 1883. [7] It provides: Where a person's death is caused by the wrongful act, fault, or omission of another, and suit is brought for damages . . . the party suing shall, if entitled to damages, have the right to recover the mental and physical suffering, loss of time, and necessary expenses resulting to the deceased from the personal injuries, and also the damages resulting to the parties for whose use and benefit the right of action survives from the death consequent upon the injuries received. Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-113 (emphasis added). The plain language of Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-113 reveals that it may be classified as a survival statute because it preserves whatever cause of action was vested in the victim at the time of death. Jones v. Black, 539 S.W.2d 123 (Tenn.1976); Milligan v. American Hoist & Derrick Co., 622 F.Supp. 56, 59 (W.D.Tenn.1985). The survival character of the statute is evidenced by the language the party suing shall have the right to recover [damages] resulting to the deceased from the personal injuries. Thrailkill v. Patterson, 879 S.W.2d 836, 841 (Tenn.1994) (emphasis added). Tennessee courts have declared that the purpose of this language is to provide for the continued existence and passing of the right of action of the deceased, and not for any new, independent cause of action in [survivors]. Whaley v. Catlett, 103 Tenn. 347, 53 S.W. 131, 133 (Tenn. 1899); see also Herrell v. Haney, 207 Tenn. 532, 341 S.W.2d 574, 576 (Tenn. 1960); Memphis St. Ry. Co. v. Cooper, 203 Tenn. 425, 313 S.W.2d 444, 447-48 (Tenn.1958); Jamison v. Memphis Transit Management Co., 381 F.2d 670, 673 (6th Cir.1967). Accordingly, Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-113 in theory, preserve[s] the right of action which the deceased himself would have had, and . . . [has] basically been construed as falling within the survival type of wrongful death statutes for over a century because it continues that cause of action by permitting recovery of damages for the death itself. Jones, 539 S.W.2d at 123-25. Notwithstanding the accurate, technical characterization of Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-5-113 as survival legislation, the statute also creates a cause of action that compensates survivors for their losses. The statute provides that damages may be recovered resulting to the parties for whose use and benefit the right of action survives from the death. Id. (emphasis added). Hence, survivors of the deceased may recover damages for their losses suffered as a result of the death as well as damages sustained by the deceased from the time of injury to the time of death. Jones, 539 S.W.2d at 124 (Tennessee's wrongful death legislation provides for elements of damages consistent with a theory of survival of the right of action of the deceased but also allows damages consistent. . . with the creation of a new cause of action in the beneficiaries.). Our inquiry shall focus on whether survivors should be permitted to recover consortium losses.