Opinion ID: 6500431
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Heading: The History of the Wrongful Death Act

Text: In 1852, the General Assembly enacted the Maryland Wrongful Death Act to abrogate the common law principle that a personal action died with the person. Parker v. Hamilton, 453 Md. 127, 134 (2017); Stewart v. United Elec. Light & Power Co., 104 Md. 332, 333–34 (1906). At common law, “if an injury were done either to the person or property of another for which damages only could be recovered in satisfaction, the action died with the person to whom or by whom[] the wrong was done.” Stewart, 104 Md. at 333–34 (emphasis omitted). Maryland’s Wrongful Death Act is based on England’s Fatal Accidents Act of 1846, which is also known as the Lord Campbell’s Act. The Lord Campbell’s Act provided that § 1. [W]hensoever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect[,] or default is such as would (if death had not ensued), have entitled the party injured to maintain an action, and 8 recover damages in respect thereof, then, and in every such case, the person who would have been liable, if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances, as amount in law to felony. § 2. [E]very such action shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent, and child of the person whose death shall have been so caused, and shall be brought by, and in the name of, the executive, or administrator, of the person deceased; and in every such action the jury may give such damages as they may think proportioned to the injury, resulting from such death, to the parties respectively for whom, and for whose benefit, such action shall be brought[;] and the amount so recovered, after deducting the costs not recovered from the defendant, shall be divided amongst the before mentioned parties, in such shares as the jury, by their verdict, shall find and direct. Fatal Accidents Act 1846, 9 & 10 Vict. c. 93 (Eng.). Every state has a similar statute, often based upon the Lord Campbell’s Act, remedying the common law rule. Parker, 453 Md. at 135. As enacted in 1852, the Maryland Wrongful Death Act “strongly resembl[ed]” the Lord Campbell’s Act. Mummert v. Alizadeh, 435 Md. 207, 215 (2013). In pertinent part, the 1852 enactment provided [t]hat whensoever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensued,) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, then and in every such case the person who would have been liable, if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to felony. Md. Code (1879), Art. 67 § 1; 1852 Md. Laws, ch. 299. 9 The Wrongful Death Act remained “virtually unchanged” from its enactment until 1974. Mummert, 435 Md. at 215. In 1974, as part of Maryland’s code revision,5 the General Assembly repealed Article 67 and reenacted the Wrongful Death Act as Title 3, Subtitle 9 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. CJ § 3-902(a) provides that “[a]n action may be maintained against a person whose wrongful act causes the death of another.” “The 197[4] changes to the statute were made for style and organization purposes, not to alter the meaning of the statute, as is the usual goal of [c]ode revision.” Mummert, 435 Md. at 216 (citations omitted). Other than code revision in 1974, the Wrongful Death Act has only been changed by three bills in which the General Assembly extended the time limitation to bring a wrongful death claim. 1950 Md. Laws, ch. 89; 1959 Md. Laws, ch. 751; 1971 Md. Laws, ch. 784; see also Mummert, 435 Md. at 216 (citing Waddell v. Kirkpatrick, rev’d on other grounds, 331 Md. 52, 56 n.4 (1993)) (“The original limitation in the 1852 enactment was twelve months, but it was extended later to eighteen months, then to two years, and eventually to three years to bring it ‘in uniformity with that of other negligence actions.’”). 5 “As we have noted in the past, ‘[c]ode revision is a periodic process by which statutory law is re-organized and restated with the goal of making it more accessible and understandable to those who must abide by it.’” United Bank v. Buckingham, 472 Md. 407, 427 n.6 (2021) (quoting Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Shilling, 468 Md. 239, 251 n.9 (2020)). “Maryland [c]ode [r]evision began in 1970 as a long-term project to create a modern comprehensive code when Governor Marvin Mandel appointed the Commission to Revise the Annotated Code. This formal revision of the statutory law for the General Assembly was coordinated by the Department of Legislative Services. Code [r]evision was completed in 2016 with the enactment by the General Assembly of the Alcoholic Beverages Article.” Id. (quoting Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 468 Md. at 251 n.9). 10