Some unfair wrinkles in Washington Wrongful Death statutes
Washington wrongful death statutes contain some wrinkles that your clients may find to be quite unfair. You should be prepared to explain them and even more importantly you should know these wrinkles so that you don’t find out later that you’ve promised something that you cannot deliver.
In Washington, in a wrongful death action for the death of a minor child, the parents of the child are entitled to damages for the loss of the love and affection of the child and for the destruction of the parent child relationship. In many cases, especially those involving very young children, jurors can be quite generous in their verdicts for this item of damage. It is not unusual to see verdicts in excess of one million dollars. In addition the estate can recover for lost income (see below). Be prepared to explain to the parents of an 18 year old child that they are not entitled to these damages. The statute that creates damages for loss of love and affection and destruction of the parent child relationship applies only to the loss of a “minor” child. See RCW 4.24.010. The only exception would be if the parents were dependant on the child for support which is usually very unlikely. So you will have to tell the parents of an 18 year old high school senior that the only thing that the estate of the child can recover is the loss of future income minus future consumption all reduced to present value which is usually in the $250,000 to $750,000 range depending on the child’s expected income earning capacity.
Another wrinkle in the law that seems unfair is as follows. If a person is injured and lives for a time after the injury but then dies as a result of the injury, the estate may recover the pain and suffering that the person experienced before he or she died if the person is survived by a spouse, child or stepchildren. If the person is not survived by a spouse, child or stepchild the estate may still maintain the action if there are siblings or a parent who is dependant upon the person for support which is an unlikely scenario in most cases. See RCW4.20.046 and 4.20.020. The people you will have to explain this to could be the parents of a minor child who lived for several weeks after having been severely burned. There can be no recovery for the child’s pain and suffering. Or, imagine an elderly person who is widowed and had no children. Unless there is a parent (very unlikely) or a sibling dependant upon them for support (also unlikely) there can be no cause of action for the pain and suffering between the time of injury and the time of death. In fact if the person is quite old it is unlikely that there will even be much in terms of lost income. It is quite a pity that our state does not put much value on an elderly person with no children.
