I. The Grieving Families Act -

Under current New York law, damages in a wrongful death case belong solely to distributees of the decedent who sustained pecuniary (monetary) loss. Pecuniary loss includes funeral and burial expenses, future earnings of the decedent, parental guidance, and physical, moral, and intellectual training. Distributees (commonly called “next of kin”) are persons entitled to take or share in the estate or property of a decedent, as defined by statute. These persons cannot currently recover for emotional loss, mental anguish, or loss of companionship. While there is no statutory cap on the amount of damages that can be recovered in a wrongful death suit, the inability to recover for companionship-type loss effectively keeps juries from awarding runaway verdicts. New York is one of only nine states in the U.S. that does not allow for the recovery of mental anguish/emotional loss in a wrongful death case.