RCW 4.20.010

Wrongful death—Right of action.

Applied in 87 court decisions — leading case 98 Wash. 2d 434 - Wilson v. Steinbach (1982)

Most recently applied in Kellogg v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. (February 2022)

2019 c 159 s 1; 2011 c 336 s 89; 1917 c 123 s 1; RRS s 183

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) When the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act, neglect, or default of another person, his or her personal representative may maintain an action against the person causing the death for the economic and noneconomic damages sustained by the beneficiaries listed in RCW 4.20.020 as a result of the decedent's death, in such amounts as determined by a trier of fact to be just under all the circumstances of the case.

(2) This section applies regardless of whether or not the death was caused under such circumstances as amount, in law, to a felony.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.