Death of a child or elderly person can bring pecuniary damages

Pecuniary rewards available for elderly

Pecuniary or financial rewards for the wrongful death of an elderly person are modest for a variety of reasons, most notably for the fact that, once a person has reached retirement age, his or her earnings potential is considered limited. However, if an elderly person was still working, that will be taken into account.

Also, a surviving spouse may have relied on the deceased person’s pension, and if that pension does not benefit survivors, the surviving spouse will have suffered a financial loss. In such cases, the age of the survivor will be a factor, as may be the pain and suffering experienced by their loved one before death.

An elderly person’s death also denies their spouse or children companionship and financial contributions. But the children of elderly people tend to be self-supporting adults who no longer require much parental help or guidance, the loss of which can be a boost to rewards in other cases.

A child has earnings potential

By the same token, when a child dies, that death does not involve elements of lost support or guidance, since it is the surviving parents who provide this for the child. When a parent dies, a surviving child can seek damage rewards for the loss of the parent's income, care and guidance. When a child dies, such damages do not normally apply.

However, it is possible to seek pecuniary damages based on a child’s age, sex, health, habits, life expectancy and work expectancy at the time of death. In such ways a child’s earnings potential may be measured, and damages may be awarded based on that.

Such damages are largely speculative, though, and the younger the child was, the more difficult they are to determine. Yet some children – even minors under age 18 -- already are contributing money or services to a family, and those will be taken into consideration.

Life expectancy can be a factor

Actuarial or life-expectancy charts may be a tool in helping juries decide how much the child may have contributed financially to parents in later years. The age, health and circumstances of the parents claiming damages also can be a factor in reaching such decisions.

Juries are not allowed to speculate without a basis in facts, and courts tend to make only small pecuniary awards in wrongful death cases involving children. It is far easier to gain such awards when the deceased person is an adult capable of making a gainful living.

Even so, the loss of a child means more than the loss of potential earnings, but also an immediate loss of affection and companionship. On this basis, parents or adoptive parents can collect pecuniary damages for a child’s death in some states.

Unborn fetus unlikely to involve rewards

Even less likely to produce an award of pecuniary damages is the death of an unborn fetus.

 Laws can vary from state to state on whether a person can seek pecuniary damages for the wrongful death of an unborn fetus, with some states requiring that a fetus be born and alive before a wrongful death then can occur. In such cases the death of an unborn fetus cannot produce pecuniary awards, and the parents’ grieving is not considered actionable, either. Texas Supreme Court rulings have held that parents of a stillborn fetus may not bring claims. 

Also keep in mind that one member of a family cannot sue another for wrongful death.

A skilled wrongful death lawyer can help you ascertain if you should seek pecuniary damages for the death of a child or an elderly person in your family and, if so, the possible extent of such damages.

Jim S. Adler & Associates can assist you in a wrongful death lawsuit involving children or the elderly.