Park v. Rockwell International Corp.

This appeal involves a wrongful death action (RSA 556:12) brought by the administrator of a deceased employee’s estate against the employer. The defendant moved to dismiss the father’s action as administrator claiming that, because the decedent employee died without surviving dependents, RSA 281:12 (Supp. 1979) bars the action and limits recovery by decedent’s estate to that expressly provided under RSA 281:22. RSA 281:22 IV provides that an employee’s estate may recover only $1,200 for burial expenses against the employer when the employee leaves no dependents.

The plaintiff objected to the…