Court Opinion

ID: 9759375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:14:24.408266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.599248
License: Public Domain

FINCH, Senior Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the principal opinion. I would reverse.
I agree with and concur in that portion of the dissenting opinion of Bardgett, J., which takes the position that Robert Joe Cobb, the biological father of Rhonda, is not entitled to recover for her wrongful death.
I also dissent from the holding that Norma Jean House, the mother of Rhonda, is entitled to recover from defendant insurance company on the policy it issued to Robert Joe Cobb.
*744The right of Norma Jean House to recover for the wrongful death of her daughter is conferred on her in her capacity as parent of a dependent minor child. This is the right created by the wrongful death statute. That act does not provide a right of action in the mother for her own benefit as legal representative of the deceased daughter. That being true, the policy issued by defendant to Robert Joe Cobb does not cover Norma’s claim for the wrongful death of her daughter. The policy only promises to pay sums which an insured or his legal representative is entitled to recover. This means, where the claim is for wrongful death, those sums which such persons are entitled to recover under the wrongful death act. Since Norma is not a relative of Robert Joe Cobb and is not an insured under the policy definitions and since she is not entitled under the wrongful death act to recover in the capacity of legal representative of Rhonda, I would hold that Norma cannot recover on the policy sued upon and would reverse the judgment as to her. Insofar as Sterns v. M.F.A. Mutual Insurance Company, 401 S.W.2d 510 (Mo.App.1966) is inconsistent with the views herein expressed, I would hold that it should not be followed.