Who can bring a wrongful death action in Massachusetts?

On behalf of Aiken and Aiken P.C. Personal Injury Attorneys posted in Wrongful Death, on Saturday, June 27, 2015

Any time that a person dies as the result of the negligent, reckless or intentional act of another there are two classes of victims: the deceased person, and his or her loved ones. The Massachusetts wrongful death statute acts to preserve any cause of action that the deceased person may have had against the person or entity that caused his or her fatal injury, but this brings up the question of how, if the decedent is not available personally to file the lawsuit and cannot personally recover any damages from a jury award, a case is to be brought forward.Although the end beneficiaries of a wrongful death damages award are the family members of the person whose unnecessary death created the cause of action, under the law these people are not the ones who are entitled to bring the lawsuit. Instead, the law treats any cause of action as belonging to the estate of the deceased and not to his or her surviving relatives.В  What this means is that the responsibility of the deceased person’s administrator or executor to take the steps necessary to initiate a lawsuit based on a cause of action for wrongful death. The wording of the statute makes it clear by omission that family members or other relatives do not have the right to file such a suit, and moreover state that the administrator or executor “shall” initiate such an action within the three-year statute of limitations — which begins within three years of the date of death or within three years of discovering the factual basis for a wrongful death action.The particulars of a wrongful death lawsuit — who can file suit, the elements that need to be proven to prevail on the claim, the types of damages that can be awarded, and more — are all things that an experienced personal injury attorney may help surviving relatives as well as the executor or administrator to understand and to take appropriate action upon.