WYOMING GUIDE 20

Wrongful Death After a Wyoming Motor-Vehicle Crash

When a motor-vehicle crash causes death, Wyoming creates a statutory wrongful-death claim for qualifying beneficiaries who can prove loss. Special rules govern who brings the action, what damages may be proved, the filing deadline and how insurance applies.

Two-Year Wrongful-Death Deadline

Wyoming generally requires a wrongful-death action to be commenced within two years after the decedent’s death.

Do not assume the ordinary personal-injury limitations period controls a fatal crash.

The Claim Is Brought by a Wrongful Death Representative

Current Wyoming law requires every wrongful-death action to be brought in the name of a court-appointed wrongful death representative for the exclusive benefit of beneficiaries who sustained damage.

The representative acts for the beneficiary group rather than solely for his or her own individual interest.

Appointment Can Affect the Deadline

Do Not Treat Appointment as an Informal Family Decision

Current Wyoming law requires a separate judicial appointment action, notice procedures and later identification of reasonably ascertainable beneficiaries.

Wrongful Death and Survival Claims Are Different

Crash Causes the Death

When death results from the same personal injuries caused by the defendant, Wyoming limits recovery for those personal injuries to wrongful-death damages.

The estate does not ordinarily add a separate personal-injury award for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering.

Death From an Unrelated Cause

If a person has a personal-injury claim and later dies from an unrelated cause, Wyoming’s survival statute can permit that existing personal-injury claim to continue.

Do Not Double Count Personal-Injury and Wrongful-Death Damages

Wyoming’s survival statute expressly limits personal-injury recovery to wrongful-death damages when the injuries themselves cause the death.

Each Beneficiary Proves Individual Damages

Wrongful-death damages are not automatically divided equally simply because several family members qualify as beneficiaries.

Each participating beneficiary must prove the actual loss sustained from the death.

What Wyoming Expressly Allows

Wyoming permits fair and just pecuniary and, where legally supported, exemplary damages and expressly recognizes damages for:

Companionship

The probable future companionship the beneficiary lost.

Society

The relational and personal benefits the decedent probably would have continued to provide.

Comfort

The probable future comfort and relational support supplied by the decedent.

Pecuniary Loss

Financial or other economically measurable benefits supported by the evidence.

Grief and Mental Anguish Are Not Separate Wrongful-Death Damages

Wyoming distinguishes the value of the relationship that was lost from the survivor’s emotional reaction to the death.

Loss of probable future companionship, society and comfort is compensable.

Grief, abandonment feelings and mental anguish merely as emotional reactions to the death are not separate Wyoming wrongful-death damage categories.

Beneficiary Damages Evidence

relationship to decedent
frequency of contact
shared residence
financial support
household services
childcare
caregiving
transportation
advice and guidance
shared activities
family traditions
holidays
travel
communications
future plans
dependency
life expectancy evidence
earning evidence where relevant

Damages Are Not Presumed

The existence of a family relationship does not guarantee a particular monetary award.

In Knowles v. Corkill, the jury found the defendant 52% at fault for the fatal collision but awarded no wrongful-death damages. The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld that result because each beneficiary must prove the actual compensable loss claimed.

Comparative Fault Applies to Fatal Crashes

Wyoming’s comparative-fault statute expressly includes wrongful-death actions.

Fault Allocation	General Wyoming Effect
0%	No comparative-fault reduction.
25%	Damages generally reduced by 25%.
50%	Recovery is not barred solely by the 50% allocation.
51%	Recovery is barred under the current comparative-fault statute.

Fatal Crash Insurance Investigation

Several Beneficiaries Do Not Automatically Mean Several Insurance Limits

Wyoming’s Dahlheimer decision applied a single UM “each person” limit where one insured died, even though several survivors possessed wrongful-death claims.

The policy measured the limit by the number of persons who sustained bodily injury—not by the number of beneficiaries suffering derivative losses.