Wrongful Death
Tuesday, March 13th, 2018
The Tennessee Supreme Court has decided that a surviving spouse still maintains the priority to file a wrongful death lawsuit when the decedent’s child had also filed a wrongful death lawsuit in which the child alleged that the surviving spouse negligently caused the decedent’s death. The Court decided so because the wrongful death statutes do not include an exception to the spousal priority rule and the surviving spouse (in that case) did not waive his right to file the wrongful death lawsuit.