§ 35-6 Wrongful Death - Damages

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 35-6 Wrongful Death - Damages

In a wrongful death action, the damages recoverable are those sustained by the statutory beneficiaries resulting from the death of the decedent. Thus, the question of damages is not directed toward the value of the human life that was lost, but rather the damages suffered by the beneficiaries as a result of the wrongful death.

South Carolina Code section 15-51-40 (2005) reads: "In every [wrongful death] action the jury may give damages, including exemplary damages when the wrongful act, neglect, or default was the result of recklessness, wilfulness, or malice, as they may think proportioned to the injury resulting from the death to the parties respectively for whom and for whose benefit such action shall be brought."

In an action for wrongful death, the elements of damages to be considered by you, the jury, include:

(1) pecuniary loss or economic loss; "pecuniary loss" is a loss of money, or of something by which money or something of money value may be acquired;
(2) mental shock and suffering;
(3) wounded feelings;
(4) grief and sorrow;
(5) loss of companionship;
(6) deprivation of the use and comfort of the deceased's society, including the loss of decedent's experience, knowledge and judgment in managing the affairs of himself and his

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