Worgan v. Greggo & Ferrara, Inc.

Layton, J.:

In my first opinion upon this subject, I concluded that the administrator of a viable infant killed by negligence had no right of action against the wrongdoer. A motion for reargument was filed and granted, and after a thorough reexamination of the rapidly growing list of recent decisions to the contrary, I have decided that the weight of modern authority is in favor of such a cause of action.

The early decisions, headed by Dietrich v. Inhabitants of Northampton, 1884, 138 Mass. 14 denied recovery. In the cited case, Justice Holmes then speaking for the Supreme Judicial Court of…