Hamby v. McDaniel

I respectfully dissent.

While the Tennessee Wrongful Death Statute did, as the majority notes, change a rule of the common law, it does not follow that the statute must be strictly construed. See, e. g., Southeastern Aviation, Inc. v. Hurd, 209 Tenn. 369, 355 S.W.2d 436 (1962). Statutes changing common-law rules may also be remedial, 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 388 (1953), and thus, entitled to a liberal construction so as to effectuate the purposes for which they were enacted.

“Death statutes have their roots in dissatisfaction with the archaisms of the [earlier] law . . . . It would be a misfortune…