Court Opinion

ID: 9797980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 04:33:36.400577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:59:58.786179
License: Public Domain

Judge J. JONES
specially concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately, however, because I believe the issue whether plaintiff can maintain a wrongful death claim for the death of her child can be resolved more simply than the majority has resolved it.
Section 18-21-202, C.R.S.2007, provides, in relevant part, that a wrongful death claim may be brought for "the death of a person" if that person could have maintained an action for personal injuries "if death had not ensued...."
The issue here therefore turns on whether plaintiff's child was a "person." That term is not defined by the statute. Accordingly, we must give that term its plain and ordinary meaning. Concerned Parents of Pueblo, Inc. v. Gilmore, 47 P.3d 311, 313 (Colo.2002); Golden Animal Hosp. v. Horton, 897 P.2d 833, 836 (Colo.1995). If the language of the statute is unambiguous, we must enforce it as written." Premier Farm Credit, PCA v. W-Cattle, LLC, 155 P.3d 504, 513 (Colo.App.2006).
The plain and ordinary meaning of "person" is an individual human being. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1686 (2002) ("an individual human being"); Black's Law Dictionary 1178 (8th ed. 2004) ("A human being."); ¢f Crug v. Farmers Ins. Exchange, 12 P.8d 307, 811-12 (Colo.App.2000) (plain and ordinary meaning of "person" in an insurance contract is "an individual human being") (citing Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary 1445 (2d ed.1998) ).
It should go without saying that a child born alive is an individual human being. See Hudak v. Georgy, 535 Pa. 152, 634 A.2d 600, 603 (1993) ("[Tloday we are reaffirming the unremarkable proposition that an infant born alive is, without qualification, a person.") (holding that wrongful death action may be brought on behalf of a child born alive, though not viable at the time of birth). The child in this case was therefore a "person" within the meaning of section 13-21-202.
The only limitation the statute places on the right to maintain a wrongful death action for the death of a person is that the person would have been able to bring an action for personal injuries if he or she had survived. The statute imposes no condition that the victim be viable at the time of the injury or at the time of the birth, and we must decline defendant's invitation to read into the statute any such condition. In re Regan, 151 P.3d 1281, 1287 (Colo.2007); People v. Cross, 127 P.3d 71, 73 (Colo.2006); Sheridan Redev. Agency v. Knightsbridge Land Co., LLC., 166 P.3d 259, 263 (Colo.App.2007); see Kalafut v. Gruver, 239 Va. 278, 389 S.E.2d 681, 684-85 (1990) (stating as follows in holding that a wrongful death action may be maintained for a child born alive but not viable: "[The test is not ... whether the decedent could have maintained a personal injury action at the time of defendant's negligence or, stated differently, whether a fetus can maintain a tort action at the time it is injured in utero. Rather, the statutory test is whether, had death not ensued, the person could subsequently have maintained a personal injury action. Clearly, the answer to that question is in the affirmative in the case of a live birth.").