2014 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.
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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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