Wrongful Death — Basic Questions

Abstract

It goes without saying that the wrongful injury of a person, the victim, by another, the tortfeasor, always raises interesting questions for a lawyer. Not only is he faced with all the problems regarding the prerequisites for establishing the tortfeasor’s liability, but he also has to think about which harm has to be compensated and to what extent, thus also which methods of calculation have to be used, e.g. objective or subjective yardsticks. All these problems are —you might say — in the normal scope of tort law. Cases of wrongful death, however, highlight some particular legal aspects: It is not the victim himself who claims because he is already in a better world and does not feel the consequences of his death. As the person who suffered the injury no longer exists, at stake are primarily — at least at first sight — not his losses and his compensation but the harm suffered by the surviving dependents and their compensation. We will see that to some extent another classification seems possible and reasonable. But at any rate, in regard of compensation, we have to take into account that under no circumstances will the victim himself but third persons claim and be awarded damages and that, therefore, ultimately not the interests of the victim himself but of third persons seem to be decisive.

I would like to thank Donna Stockenhuber for proof-reading the text.