Think of it this way, a wrongful death case belongs to the dependents and can be brought by them to recover pecuniary loss resulting from the death of a close family member. A claim for pain and suffering belongs to the deceased him/herself, to the extent he or she suffered before dying.
In New York, the pecuniary loss that may be recovered in a wrongful death lawsuit is defined as the economic detriment that occurs as a direct result of a person’s death. These pecuniary losses can include:
- the medical costs that the deceased victim incurred as a result of the injury prior to death
- funeral and burial costs
- loss of the deceased person's expected future income
- value of the services that the deceased would have provided
In order to hold a negligent party liable in a wrongful death claim, the estate of the deceased must bring a lawsuit within two years. Most commonly, the spouse and the children of the deceased are the individuals are within the class of dependents that may recover money.
Sadly, as I had to explain to my client, no matter how much pain and loss the family was experiencing, that pain and loss would not be considered part of what could be recovered as damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. Understanding there are limits to what can be recovered in any personal injury lawsuit, and that a court of law can never undo the damage that has been done by the negligence of a third party, it has nonetheless been my experience that the interests of justice can be well served in the recovery that the law does provide for, limited though it is to the form of damages for pecuniary loss.
