Appellate Law

Court Clarifies Wrongful Death Standing

By Madeline H. Haikala

In Wood, M.D., et al. v. Wayman, No. 1070232 (Ala. May 7, 2010), the Alabama Supreme Court resolved a certified question concerning standing in an Alabama wrongful death action.  The trial court asked whether, "when a person dies testate and the person named as personal representative in the will files a wrongful-death action within the statutory limitations period, but is not formally appointed as personal representative until after the statutory limitations period has run, 'the appointment relates back to the death or [the] date of filing the suit and the suit is not barred by the Statute of Limitations.'"  The Supreme Court answered, "no."

The decedent died on December 30, 2004, and his wife filed a wrongful death action against the defendants on December 27, 2006. 

During discovery, the defendants asked the plaintiff to provide copies of her letters of appointment as personal representative of her husband's estate.  When the plaintiff did not reply, the defendants approached the Dale Probate Court and learned that there was no estate.  They then moved to dismiss the wrongful death action because the plaintiff lacked standing.  The plaintiff obtained letters testamentary on September 27, 2007, and asked for leave to amend her complaint to "substitute [Wayman] as personal representative of her deceased husband's estate as party plaintiff."  The trial court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss and certified the standing issue to the Alabama Supreme Court.

Holding that the proposed amendment substituting the proper party plaintiff  would not relate back in an Alabama wrongful death action, the Court explained that the two-year limitations period in Ala. Code § 6-5-410(d) "is a statute of creation, otherwise known as a nonclaim bar to recovery" not a statute of limitation, and the two year period is not subject to tolling. Consequently, because the plaintiff "was not a personal representative appointed by the probate court when she filed the action or at the expiration of the statutory two-year period for filing a wrongful-death action, the trial court erred in denying the physicians' motion to dismiss the action on the basis that [the plaintiff's] appointment as personal representative, which became effective nine months after the expiration of the two-year limitations period, could not relate back to the date of Charles's death or to the date of the filing of the wrongful death action."

Full post as published by Alabama Appellate Watch on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).