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History
- Referred to judiciary
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1953
Title of bill
An act to amend the estates, powers and trusts law, in relation to payment of damages in wrongful death action
Purpose
This bill specifies what constitutes damages in wrongful death actions; requires that awards specify both the amount and the person for whose benefit damages are awarded.
Justification
Under current law, survivors of wrongful death victims are not compensated for non-pecuniary loss such as mental anguish, emotional loss and loss of affection. services, companionship, care or other services provided by the decedent. In cases involving the wrongful death of' an elderly citizen or a child, compensation is barely recognized in New York State. In 1847, New York became the first state to enact a wrongful death statute. As the country moved toward an industrial economy in the last century and society was confronted with the horrors of the unfettered exploitation of labor. attitudes toward the value of a human life changed. After all. in the early nineteenth century , it was cheaper for a factory owner to kill one's victim than to injure him.
The New York law permitted damage suits, based on "pecuniary" losses to next of kin, to be brought against wrongdoers in wrongful death cases. Such suits could even be brought in cases involving the death of children to compensate for the family's loss of the child's meager factory wages. That law has remained unchanged since its inception a century and a half ago. New York State has now fallen behind nearly half the states in the country in implementing progressive wrongful death legislation. Survivors of wrongful death victims may collect damages only for estimated economic loss, which in the case of a child or an elderly person can be quite small. Such restrictions effectively diminish the value of the young and the elderly in New York State.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect April 1, 2012 and shall apply to causes of action arising on or after such date.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.