PREAMBLE
WHEREAS no action or
suit is now maintainable in any court against a person who, by his
wrongful act, neglect or default, may have caused the death of
another person, and it is often times right and expedient that the
wrongdoer in such case should be answerable in damages for the
injury so caused by him;
It is enacted as
follows:-
1. Short title and
extent
(1) This Act may be called the Fatal Accidents Act,
1855.
(2)
It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and
Kashmir.
1A. Suit for compensation to the family of a person for loss
occasioned to it by his death by actionable wrong
Whenever the death of a
person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the
act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensured)
have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover
damages in respect thereof, the party who would have been liable if
death had not ensured, shall be liable to an action or suit for
damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and
although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances
as amount in law to felony or other crime.
Every such action or suit shall
be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child, if any,
of the person whose death shall have been so caused, and shall be
brought by and in the name of the executor, administrator, or
representative of the person deceased;
and in every such action, the
court may give such damages as it may think proportioned to the loss
resulting from such death to the parties respectively, for whom and
for whose benefit such action shall be brought, and the amount so
recovered, after deducting all costs and expenses, including the
costs not recovered from the defendant, shall be divided amongst the
before-mentioned parties, or any of them, in such shares as the
court by its judgement or decree shall direct.
Comment: But in
assessing damages certain other factors have to been taken note of
which the High Court overlooked, such as the uncertainties of life
and the fact of accelerated payment - that the husband would be
getting a lump sum payment which but for his wife's death would have
been available to him in driblets over a number of years. Allowance
must be made for the uncertainties and the total figure scaled down
accordingly. The deceased might not have been able to earn till the
age of retirement for some reason or other, like illness or for
having to spend more time to look after the family which was
expected to grow. Thus the amount assessed has to be reduced taking
into account these imponderable factors. Some element of conjecture
is inevitable in assessing damages; AIR 1977 SUPREME COURT 1189,
M.P. State Road Transport Corporation, Bairagarh, Bhopal v.
Sudhakar
2. Not more than one
suit to be brought
Provided always that not more
than one action or suit shall be brought for, and in respect of, the
same subject-matter of complaint.
Claim for loss to the estate may
be added: Provided that in any such action or suit, the executor,
administrator, or representative of the deceased may insert a claim
for, and recover any pecuniary loss, to the estate of the deceased
occasioned by such wrongful act, neglect or default, which sum, when
recovered, shall be deemed part of the assets of the estate of the
deceased.
3. Plaintiff shall
deliver particulars, etc.
The plaint in any such action or
suit shall give a full particular of the person or persons for whom,
or on whose behalf, such action or suit shall be brought, and of the
nature of the claim in respect of such damages shall be sought to be
recovered.
4. Interpretation
clause
The following words and expressions are intended to have the
meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, so far as such
meanings are not excluded by the context or by the nature of the
subject-matter; that is to say, the word "person" shall apply to
bodies politic and corporate; and the word "parent" shall include
father and mother, grand-father and grand-mother; and the word
"child" shall include son and daughter, and grand-son and
grand-daughter, and step-son and step-daughter.