Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Massachusetts

All states, including Massachusetts, have laws governing wrongful death claims. These laws permit a deceased person's survivors to seek compensation if the death was caused by someone else's accidental or intentional act. Massachusetts law addresses when a "wrongful death" has occurred, who can file a lawsuit, and how monetary damages are calculated and distributed. State law also sets deadlines for filing these types of cases, and creates other potential options for pursuing compensation.

What Is "Wrongful Death" Under Massachusetts Law?

A wrongful death claim can arise when one person dies due to the legal fault of another person or entity. In Massachusetts, a "wrongful death" is one caused by:

• a negligent act (for example, committing medical malpractice or causing a car accident)
• a "willful, wanton, or reckless act" (including crimes and other intentional acts), or
• a breach of warranty (in other words, providing a product or service that is dangerously unfit for its intended purpose).

Under state law, a wrongful death claim may be filed in any situation where the deceased person could have filed a personal injury lawsuit if he or she had lived.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 2 (2025).)

Wrongful Death Lawsuits Versus Criminal Prosecutions

As in other types of personal injury lawsuits, in a successful wrongful death case the defendant's liability is expressed solely in terms of financial compensation. In a wrongful death case the defendant pays this compensation (called "damages") to the deceased person's survivors or estate.

The use of monetary damages to compensate plaintiffs is one major difference between a wrongful death lawsuit and a criminal homicide case. The primary purpose of criminal charges is not to compensate victims, but rather to impose consequences on the defendant. When a defendant is convicted in a criminal trial they can be punished with prison time, fines paid to the state, probation, and other penalties.

Another big difference between a criminal prosecution for homicide and a wrongful death civil lawsuit: In criminal court, the state or federal government must establish the accused person's guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt"—a very high bar for the prosecution to clear. In a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff must demonstrate the defendant's liability only "by a preponderance of the evidence," meaning it's more likely than not that the defendant is responsible for the death. It is possible, though, for one event to result in criminal charges and a wrongful death claim: A defendant can be sued for wrongful death in civil court while facing criminal charges related to the same death.

Learn more about proving liability in a wrongful death case.

When Can't You File a Wrongful Death Claim in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts' wrongful death law specifically excludes certain types of claims. You can't file a wrongful death lawsuit against:

• a railroad if the deceased was killed in an accident while on or near the train tracks, or
• a streetcar company if the deceased was killed in an accident while on or near the tracks at any point where there is not an established railroad crossing.

The statute also bars lawsuits against employers when employees die on the job; we'll talk more below about how survivors can seek compensation after a job-related death.

Who Can File a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?

In Massachusetts, only the executor or administrator of the deceased person's estate can file the wrongful death claim. Executors and administrators have basically the same powers and responsibilities in Massachusetts. The key difference is that:

• an executor is chosen by the deceased and named in their will (or other estate planning documents)
• an administrator is appointed by a court if the deceased had no will, or didn't name an executor in the will.

However the executor or administrator is chosen for the job, they are in charge of paying the deceased person's final debts, wrapping up the estate, and distributing assets according to the will (or according to Massachusetts' rules for intestate succession). If someone is legally responsible for the death, then it falls to the executor to handle any wrongful death claim.

Read more about who has the legal right to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Who Can Receive Damages in a Massachusetts Wrongful Death Case?

In a successful wrongful death lawsuit, the court awards damages to the plaintiffs, requiring the defendant to pay financial compensation to the plaintiff. Wrongful death lawsuits can also settle, meaning the two sides reach an agreement to end the case before a verdict. Massachusetts law specifies who can receive a jury award or settlement in a wrongful death case:

• If the deceased was married, and had no living children, then the spouse receives any settlement or award.
• If the deceased was married, and had one surviving child, then that child and the spouse split any settlement or award.
• If the deceased was married, and had more than one surviving child, then the spouse receives one-third of any settlement or award, and all of the surviving children split the remaining two-thirds.
• If the deceased was not married, then an settlement or award is paid to their next of kin.

The right to a wrongful death settlement or award passes from children to grandchildren. This is important in cases where the decedent had a child who was already deceased. In a situation like that, the deceased child's own children have the same right to compensation that their parent would have had.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 1 (2025)

Potential Damages in a Wrongful Death Case

In Massachusetts, plaintiffs in wrongful death cases can seek compensation for a variety of losses, including:

• the income the deceased could reasonably be expected to have earned in his or her lifetime
• the services, protection, and assistance the deceased would have provided to survivors
• the care, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel, and advice the deceased would have offered to family members, and
• reasonable funeral and burial expenses.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 2 (2025).)

Punitive Damages

In certain cases, plaintiffs may also be able to collect so-called "punitive damages." Unlike compensatory damages, punitive damages don't address losses suffered by plaintiffs. Instead, they're designed to punish defendants for particularly blameworthy conduct, and to deter other people from behaving in similar ways.

In Massachusetts, punitive damages are only available if:

• the defendant's conduct was "malicious, willful, wanton or reckless," or
• the defendant committed gross negligence.

In other words, punitive damages punish defendants who deliberately set out to hurt people (whether or not they intended to kill anyone), or whose actions show they had no concern for other people's safety. So, for example:

• If a defendant caused a fatal car accident because they got distracted and accidentally ran a red light, they probably wouldn't be ordered to pay punitive damages.
• If a defendant caused a fatal car accident by deliberately speeding through a red light, they could be ordered to pay punitive damages.

When punitive damages are awarded, they must be at least $5,000.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 2 (2025).)

Get more details on damages that might be available in a wrongful death case.

Does Massachusetts Cap Damages in Wrongful Death Cases?

Many states place caps on the amount of damages plaintiffs can receive in personal injury cases, including wrongful death cases. However, Massachusetts generally does not impose these kinds of limits on damages in wrongful death cases. For example, state law caps non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, but the law explicitly exempts wrongful death lawsuits from this limit. (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 231, § 60H (2025).)

On the other hand, there are significant damage caps in wrongful death lawsuits (and other personal injury suits) against government agencies:

• Compensatory damages are capped at $100,000 (except in lawsuits against the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority).
• No punitive damages are allowed.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 258, § 2 (2025).)

Lawsuits against government agencies and employees are more complicated and often more difficult than lawsuits against private individuals and organizations. If you're thinking of suing the government, make sure you understand how the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act applies to your situation.

Damages for "Conscious Suffering"

Most of the damages in a wrongful death case compensate survivors for their losses--but there is one exception. Damages can be awarded if the deceased experienced "conscious suffering" as a result of the illness or injury that caused the death. Most wrongful death damages are distributed according to the rules we discussed above. But money paid as compensation for the deceased's conscious suffering becomes part of the deceased person's estate. We'll talk more in the next section about the difference between damages paid to the estate and damages paid to the deceased's survivors. (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 6 (2021).)

Wrongful Death Lawsuits Versus Survival Actions

If someone is killed in an accident, or by an intentional act, the person responsible could face both a wrongful death lawsuit and a so-called "survival action." There are crucial differences between these two causes of action.

Damages available in a survival action. We've already discussed the damages available to survivors in a wrongful death lawsuit. In a survival action, the damages must be compensation for harm the deceased suffered while they were still alive. For example, if someone is injured in a car accident, and dies sometime later, damages could include things like the victim's pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical expenses.

Who gets compensated in a survival action? Any settlement or award in a survival action is paid to the deceased person's estate. This has important implications for who eventually gets the money:

• Creditors can seek to satisfy debts with the estate's assets. So, unlike wrongful death damages, damages from a survival action might end up being used to cover the deceased person's bills.
• As we've discussed, Massachusetts state law lists who can receive damages in a wrongful death lawsuit. On the other hand, the eventual distribution of an estate's assets are governed by the deceased person's will (or by Massachusetts' rules for intestate succession).

What's the deadline for filing a survival action? The deadline for filing a survival action is the same as the deadline for the underlying claim the deceased could have made if they'd lived. Massachusetts' filing deadline for most personal injury lawsuits is three years, but it's crucial to make sure you check the specific rules that apply to your case. The state does allow some extra time to file a survival action if someone dies shortly before they were required to file a lawsuit. An estate always gets up to four months from the date of death to file a survival action, even if the usual filing deadline was within that four-month window.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 228, § 1 (2025); Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 190B § 3-109 (2025)

How Long Do I Have to File a Massachusetts Wrongful Death Claim?

A wrongful death case must be filed in court within a certain period of time. This law imposing this deadline is called a "statute of limitations." In Massachusetts, the statute of limitations for most wrongful death claims is three years from:

• the date of the person's death, or
• the date that the executor or administrator knew or should have known there was a basis for a wrongful death claim.

(Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 229, § 2 (2025).)

How the personal injury statute of limitations affects wrongful death claims. Sometimes a person is injured, but lives for several years before dying of those injuries. If someone had a chance to file a personal injury lawsuit, but let the deadline pass, then the clock doesn't get reset when they die. If the deceased would not have been allowed to file a personal injury lawsuit on the day they died, then the executor or administrator of their estate will not be allowed to file a wrongful death lawsuit later. (Fabiano v. Philip Morris USA Inc., 492 Mass. 361 (2023).)

The rules are different rules for medical malpractice. Note that Massachusetts' deadlines for medical malpractice claims are significantly different than the deadlines for other kinds of personal injury cases. These differences also affects wrongful death claims arising from medical malpractice.

Statutes of limitations in wrongful death cases can be complicated--if you have questions about how much time you have to file a claim, consider speaking with an attorney.

Other Options for Seeking Compensation

In addition to wrongful death lawsuits and survival actions, there may be other options for seeking compensation for the death of a loved one:

• Compensation in criminal cases. If someone is convicted of causing another person's death, then that person can be ordered to pay restitution to the victim's family. This restitution only covers economic losses (not harms like pain and suffering), and can be reduced based on the defendant's ability to pay. Crime victims, including surviving family members, may also be entitled to up to $25,000 through Massachusetts' Victim Compensation Program.
• Workers' compensation benefits. As we mentioned above, Massachusetts law bars wrongful death claims against employers when an employee is killed on the job. Instead, surviving spouses and dependent children must seek compensation through Massachusetts' workers' compensation program. This program entitles survivors to compensation for burial expenses and up to two-thirds of the deceased's average weekly wage at the time of their death.

Getting Help With Your Wrongful Death Claim

Wrongful death cases can be complicated. And, as we've seen, they aren't always the best or only way to seek compensation. If a loved one has died and you have questions about your legal options, it's a good idea to consult a personal injury attorney. An experienced lawyer can explain how the law applies to your situation, and help you decide the best way to proceed.