Court Opinion

ID: 9586917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:16:25.973728+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:55.959685
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
dissenting.
The legislature created a claim for the wrongful death of a child and placed that claim in the parents. OCGA § 19-7-1 (c) (Code Ann. § 74-108). The statute makes no distinction between legitimacy and illegitmacy, as is only proper. Neither does the statute make any distinction between parents who support their children and those who do not. This may or may not be proper in a wrongful death statute, but it is certainly a legislative function to make such distinctions. If a condition to the right of recovery should be that financial support have been given to the child during life, I would leave it to the legislature to lay down the guidelines for such a rule.
The majority opinion holds that a biological father who is to participate in a recovery for the wrongful death of his child born out of wedlock must have provided financial support. What about the biological father whose child was born in wedlock? What about the mothers of children born in or out of wedlock? Must they furnish financial support?
What about the parent who furnished financial support as was *534reasonable under the facts and circumstances for one-half the child’s lifetime but not during the other one-half of the child’s lifetime? Is there to be a proration? Is there to be any consideration of the relative amounts of support by each parent?
All these questions are best left to the legislature. I respectfully dissent.