Court Opinion

ID: 9847880
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:09:06.946005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:42.379218
License: Public Domain

WOLLMAN, Justice
(dissenting).
There is no question but that under the pre-1947 amendment to our wrongful death statute there could be no recovery for loss of companionship, society, association and advice, nor for the elements encompassed within those terms. See, e. g., Smith v. Presentation Academy of Aberdeen, 61 S.D. 323, 248 N.W. 762; Tufty v. Sioux Transit Co., 69 S.D. 368, 10 N.W.2d 767; Hodkinson v. Parker, 70 S.D. 272, 16 N.W.2d 924; Comment, South Dakota Pattern Jury Instruction No. 31.02.
We must assume that the legislature was familiar with this court’s interpretation of the pre-1947 law when it reenacted the exact wording of the pre-1947 law in 1967 and that the legislature intended to adopt that interpretation along with the exact wording of the old statute. Proper judicial deference to legislative intent requires us to follow our interpretation of the *127pre-1947 law, however appealing it might be to fulfill the wishful thinking of the drafters of Pattern Jury Instruction No. 31.02. See the dissenting opinions in Wardlow v. City of Keokuk, Iowa, 190 N.W.2d 439, and Selders v. Armentrout, 190 Neb. 275, 207 N.W.2d 686.
I would reverse the judgment.
I am authorized to state that Justice Dunn joins in this dissent.