Chapter 13 - § 13.1 CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES TO THE WDA

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 13.1 CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES TO THE WDA

In McGill v. General Motors Corp., 484 P.2d 790 (Colo. 1971), the court rejected an argument that provisions of Colorado's Wrongful Death Act that denied the parents of a 23-year-old married man standing to sue for his death were unconstitutional. Specifically, the court rejected the plaintiffs' contention that the statute was unconstitutional because it denied them equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs argued that since they would be entitled to support from the decedent under C.R.S. § 36-10-7 (1963) if they were paupers, it would be discriminatory to deny them a right to bring suit while allowing parents of a deceased married minor or parents of a deceased unmarried child who has reached majority to maintain suit. The plaintiffs argued that the statutory classification was not reasonable. 484 P.2d at 792. Citing Morey v. Doud, 354 U.S. 457 (1957), the court noted that the equal protection clause does not remove from the state the power to classify in the adoption of police laws but avoids what is done only when "it is without any reasonable basis and therefore is purely arbitrary." Id. The court held that the classification in the statute was not arbitrary but was reasonable "and has a direct relationship to the legislative purpose in the instant case, i.e., to provide death benefits under certain contingencies to those individuals most likely to suffer pecuniary loss." Id. As the court held: "Thus the limitation of the parental right of action by the legislature, based upon the age or marital status of the decedent, was and is a rational classification. The fact that some inequality may result is insufficient to strike down, or reconstruct, the statute." Id.

In Pollack v. City & County of Denver, 572 P.2d 828 (Colo. 1977), the court rejected a constitutional challenge to the $45,000 limit imposed by C.R.S. § 13-21-203 (1973), on recovery of damages by parents for the death of a minor child. At that time, § 13-21-203 provided that "'if the decedent left neither a widow, widower, nor minor children, nor a dependent father or mother, the damages recoverable in any such action shall not exceed forty-five thousand dollars.'" Id. at 829.

In Pollack, a mother filed a wrongful death action for the death of her five-year-old child. In her complaint, she asserted a right to collect damages in excess of $2.3 million and alleged that the $45,000...