Lucero v. Ford Motor Co.

¶19 I easily track the Court's plain-language approach: in a wrongful death action, a decedent's personal representative "may maintain an action for damages" against the defendant, § 27-1-513, MCA ; the personal representative may sue in his or her "own name," M. R. Civ. P. 17(a)(1)(A) ; and venue is proper in "the county in which the plaintiff resides," § 25-2-122(2)(b), MCA. Because the personal representative is the lawsuit's named plaintiff, his residential county is a proper venue.

¶20 However, this Court cannot read statutes in a vacuum; we must read them in relationship to one another.…