When a person is injured by another’s negligence or wrongful act and that injury leads to their death, the family may chose to bring a wrongful death action. In New Jersey, an action for wrongful death may be brought if, had death not ensued, the injury would have entitled the person injured to maintain an action for damages resulting from the injury. Under N.J.S.A. 2A:31-2, the executor of the estate, or if the decedent had no will, an administrator ad prosequendum, are the only persons entitled to file a wrongful death suit.  

N.J.S.A. 2A:31-4 governs who may share in any recovery in a wrongful death suit, and provides that any amount recovered shall be for the exclusive benefit of those entitled to take an any intestate share of the decedent’s personal property. The statute provides that the decedent’s dependants shall receive a share, as determined by the Court to be a fair and equitable apportionment of the amount recovered. In determining the apportionment, the Court will consider the age of the dependents, their physical and mental condition, the necessity or desirability of providing them with educational facilities, their financial condition and the availability to them of other means of support, present and future, and any other relevant factors which will contribute to a fair and equitable apportionment of the amount recovered. 

Damages in a New Jersey wrongful death suit are assessed in accordance with N.J.S.A. 2A:31-5, which provides that the jury shall give damages as they deem fair and just considering the pecuniary injuries resulting from the death,  as well as hospital, medical, and funeral expenses. Pecuniary injuries include the monetary contributions the decedent would have made to the survivors, such as future earnings. 

A wrongful death action must be brought within two years of the decedent’s death, unless the death resulted from murder, aggravated manslaughter, or manslaughter for which the defendant has been convicted, found not guilty by reason of insanity, or adjudicated delinquent. In that case, the action may be brought at any time.