Deggs v. Asbestos Corp.

¶29 (dissenting) — Judy Deggs, acting as personal representative, brought a wrongful death action under RCW 4.20.010 within three years of the death of her father, Ray Sundberg. The majority does not doubt that Deggs’s statutory action was timely filed, but it holds that any claim was barred because the statute of limitations ran on her father’s personal injury claims before he died. I respectfully dissent. The majority’s holding is contrary to Washington’s wrongful death statute, which was enacted to allow a freestanding cause of action for family members that cannot arise before the death…