BY WRONGFUL ACT A TREATISE ON THE LAW PECULIAR RESULTING IN DEATH INCLUDING THE TEXT OF THE STATUTES AND AN ANALYTICAL SECOND EDITION BY FRANCIS B. TIFFANY KANSAS CITY, MO. VERNON LAW BOOK COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1893 *BY WEST PUBLISHING CO. COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY VERNON LAW BOOK COMPANY TIFF.DEATH W.A.(2D ED.) 87255 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION IN THE nineteen years that have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this book many changes in the statutes have been made and many decisions upon questions that were then unsettled have been rendered. For this reason it has been necessary to revise the book and to rewrite parts of it. The author has endeavored to cite all the subsequent American cases, and the more important English cases, which relate to the matters dealt with. The statutes of the various states which create causes of action for injuries resulting in death are characterized by a lack of uniformity, in substance as well as in form, which is all the more striking when it is remembered that a fairly good model of legislation was furnished by Lord Campbell's act. The statutes of a majority of the states do, indeed, while differing among themselves on many points, follow the broad lines of the English act, conferring a right of action in favor of the decedent's family or of other designated beneficiaries for the recovery of the damages which have resulted to them from the death. In many states, however, the action given is for the recovery of the damages which result, not to certain beneficiaries, but to the estate of the person killed; while in other states the statute takes the form of a survival act; and many states have a survival act, as well as a death act, the existence of both presenting questions which are differently answered in different states. In some states, again, punitive damages may be recovered; and in one the damages are assessed with reference to the degree of culpability of the defendant. The list of statutory peculiarities, which have required judicial interpretation and multiplied litigation, might be extended indefinitely. Moreover, in addition to |
