Ryan Bradley | April 8, 2025 | Uncategorized \ Wrongful Death
Bradley Law has written extensively on the topic of wrongful death laws in Missouri. Recently, we handled two different cases that unfortunately involved the death of young children. The protect the identities of those families, we will not go into any specific details, but suffice it to say in both cases, one of the Class 1 wrongful death beneficiaries were arguably responsible for the death of those children but nevertheless received money at the apportionment hearing. 
Missouri law on the apportionment of wrongful death proceeds sometimes produce unexpected results when a class member actually caused the death. The purpose of this blog article is to explain how and why this can occur with a call to action to change the law.
Understanding Missouri’s Wrongful Death Statute
Who can file a wrongful death lawsuit
When someone dies beacuse of another’s negligence, Missouri law controls who is allowed to bring the wrongful death lawsuit and establishes different classes of individuals who have priority in brining such action. Missouri Revised Statute § 537.080 says the first class consists of the decedent’s spouse, children or parents. If there is nobody in the first class or if the first class fails to file within 1 year of the death, people in class 2 may file. Those people consist of the decedent’s sibling(s). If there is nobody in class 1 or 2, then it right passes to a plaintiff ad litem. A plaintiff ad litem is just someone the court appoints, like another lawyer, to bring the case.
Apportionment of a wrongful death recovery
After a recovery, the Court will conduct an apportionment hearing. That is where the Court determines who gets the settlement money and how much. The Court is required to consider each individual’s damages by the factors listed in Missouri statute 537.090. That statute allows the Court to consider the following types of evidence in determining who gets what:
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Pecuniary losses: Loss of financial support, medical and funeral expenses.
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Loss of services: Includes household contributions, guidance, and training.
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Loss of companionship and consortium: Emotional and relational damages.
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Pain and suffering of the deceased: If the decedent endured conscious pain and suffering before death.
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Value of life lost: Determined by the trier of fact based on the “reasonable value of the services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training, and support” the decedent would have provided.
The Flaw in Missouri’s Wrongful Death Law: When a Negligent Class Member Profits
What happens when a Class 1 individual is responsible for causing the person’s death?
Imagine the hypothetical scenario: A husband has two children from a prior marriage. He is now remarried to a new woman, who is a stepmother to the man’s children. The husband works. The new wife is disabled and cannot work and relies upon her husband to support her. The disabled wife gets drunk and has a collision with another drunk driver (lets refer to him as Mr. Smith). Not only is her love of her life now dead, but her her sole source of income is gone. The children are in disbelief. They cannot believe their stepmother killed their father by driving drunk. Equally, they are outraged by Mr. Smith’s drunk driving causing his death.
Now, things get interesting. The children and the stepmother both file a wrongful death claim against Mr. Smith. The children also file a cross-claim against the stepmother, alleging her negligence contributed to the father’s death. Both Mr. Smith’s insurer and the stepmother’s insurer agree to pay $100,000 each to settle.
The children and the stepmother both file a wrongful death claim against Mr. Smith. The children also file a cross-claim against the stepmother, alleging her negligence contributed to the father’s death. Both Mr. Smith’s insurer and the stepmother’s insurer agree to pay $100,000 each to settle.
At the apportionment hearing, the children testify they had a great relationship with their dad and miss him dearly. They admit he did not financially support them. The stepmother testifies she loved him with all her heart and he was her only source of income. She is disabled and cannot work. In this scenario, Missouri law allows the Court to award all of the $200,000 to the drunk stepmother who caused her husband’s death while the children get nothing.
The only thing that could have been done to avoid this result is if Mr. Smith sued drunk wife for contribution, arguing she was at-fault. This procedure allows Mr. Smith to recoup any money he had to pay that was due to drunk wife’s negligence. Therefore, a portion of any money that winds up in drunk wife’s hands goes back to Mr. Smith. This of course, leaves the children, who did nothing wrong, with nothing.
Lets consider an even simpler hypothetical. What if Mr. Smith was not in the picture at all and instead drunk wife was 100% at fault for causing husband’s death? Further, lets assume there are no other class 1 plaintiffs besides drunk wife. But, the husband did have a sister. In that scenario, the sister can do nothign about her brother’s death at all because the only person who can bring the death lawsuit is the drunk wife.
The absurdity of these hypothetical scenarious cannot be understated. But, it is reality under the current state of Missouri law. In 1997, the Missouri Court of Appeals considered a case where the negligent beneficiary was awarded money damages for her own negligence in causing the death. Appellate Judge Lauren Denvir Stith clearly stated “the court will then divide the damages among all of the class members, including the negligent beneficiary, according to their loss…” State ex rel. Griffin v. Belt, 941 S.W.2d 570, 573 (Mo. Ct. App. 1997). Judge Stith correctly followed Missouri law because she was bound to follow the law the legislature enacted.
In our UTV case, the mother actually sued the father for his own negligence. The father’s insurance company paid a policy-limit settlement. After that, the father was awarded half of the total recovery. Yes, the father’s own insurance company paid him compensation for his own negligence in causing his own child’s death. If this leaves you scratching your head in disbelief, you are not alone.
A Call for Reform
This isn’t just a theoretical law school made up hypothetical. It happens. And, it underscores the urgent need for reform. As the Missouri Court of Appeals held in Griffin v. Belt, 941 S.W.2d 570 (Mo. App.W.D. 1997), “[t]he fact that this rule may lead to seemingly unfair results in some cases does not entitle us to ignore the plain meaning of the statute.” On top of this, the Court mentioned contribution as a potential solution to what would otherwise be an absurd result. However, this does not solve the problem. Contribution only allows the non-beneficiary tortfeasor to recoup money it paid to the class that lands in the hands of the at-fault beneficiary. This results in the non-negligent beneficiaries potential recoveries being diminished just because the negligent beneficiary may have had a better relationship with the deceased. On top of this, whether to bring a contribution action is 100% in the hands of the defendant(s).
Other states have laws prohibiting people from profiting from their own wrongdoing in wrongful death cases. Missouri needs to follow suit. The law should be clear: If you cause the death of your child, you don’t get to profit from it—period. Until that happens, any semblance of justice seem to be lost because of archaic Missouri laws.
Final Thoughts
Wrongful death laws are intended to provide families recourse against people who negligently cause death to a loved one. A loophole in Missouri’s wrongful death law needs to be closed to ensure class members do not financially benefit from their own negligence. Certainly, this is not what the original drafters of Missouri’s wrongful death laws intended. Missouri must fix this dangerous and absurd loophole and Bradley Law encourages you to share this post with your state legislator and state senator and express your feelings on the issue.
If you have a wrongful death matter in Kansas City or a wrongful death case in St. Louis, Bradley Law has the expertise to help guide you through the process.