2011 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 411 RIGHTS OF ACTION AND SURVIVAL OF ACTIONS 411.130 Action for wrongful death -- Personal representative to prosecute -- Distribution of amount recovered.
KY Rev Stat § 411.130 (1996 through Reg Sess) What's This?
411.130 Action for wrongful death -- Personal representative to prosecute -Distribution of amount recovered.
(1)
(2)
Whenever the death of a person results from an injury inflicted by the negligence or
wrongful act of another, damages may be recovered for the death from the person
who caused it, or whose agent or servant caused it. If the act was willful or the
negligence gross, punitive damages may be recovered. The action shall be
prosecuted by the personal representative of the deceased.
The amount recovered, less funeral expenses and the cost of administration and
costs of recovery including attorney fees, not included in the recovery from the
defendant, shall be for the benefit of and go to the kindred of the deceased in the
following order:
(a) If the deceased leaves a widow or husband, and no children or their
descendants, then the whole to the widow or husband.
(b) If the deceased leaves a widow and children or a husband and children, then
one-half (1/2) to the widow or husband and the other one-half (1/2) to the
children of the deceased.
(c) If the deceased leaves a child or children, but no widow or husband, then the
whole to the child or children.
(d) If the deceased leaves no widow, husband or child, then the recovery shall
pass to the mother and father of the deceased, one (1) moiety each, if both are
living; if the mother is dead and the father is living, the whole thereof shall
pass to the father; and if the father is dead and the mother living, the whole
thereof shall go to the mother. In the event the deceased was an adopted
person, "mother" and "father" shall mean the adoptive parents of the deceased.
(e) If the deceased leaves no widow, husband or child, and if both father and
mother are dead, then the whole of the recovery shall become a part of the
personal estate of the deceased, and after the payment of his debts the
remainder, if any, shall pass to his kindred more remote than those above
named, according to the law of descent and distribution.
History: Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 89, sec. 1. -- Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208,
sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat. sec. 6.
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