Patrick Graham v. Robert Asbury

Justice KETCHUM:

In this appeal, we consider whether the estate of a distributee under the West Virginia wrongful death act may share in the proceeds of a wrongful death settlement when the distributee, an adult child of the wrongful death decedent, survived the decedent but died before the wrongful death lawsuit was settled and the settlement proceeds were distributed. 1 The circuit court concluded that under the West Virginia wrongful death act, W.Va.Code § 55-7-6(b) [1992], the distributee’s estate was entitled to a share of the wrongful death settlement proceeds because the distributee’s…