29.4 Plaintiffs and Beneficiaries

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

29.4 Plaintiffs and Beneficiaries. The Wrongful Death Act provides that an action for wrongful death is to be brought “by and in the name of the surviving husband or wife, child, parent or guardian, or personal representative of the deceased person for and on behalf of the surviving husband or wife, children or parents.”²⁴ If none of these statutory beneficiaries survive, the action is to be brought on behalf of the decedent’s estate.²⁵ Either parent may maintain an action for the death of a child.²⁶ In the original version of the statute, the father was required to be the plaintiff in a wrongful death action for the death of a child unless he had died or abandoned the family,²⁷ but there is no prioritization between and amongst the persons who can serve as the plaintiff in the current statute.²⁸ A parent can maintain an action on behalf of a viable fetus who is killed as a result of another’s tortious conduct.²⁹

It is important to note that it...