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Torts • Survival Acts
TORT#123
Legal Definition
Survival Acts enable a party's cause of action to survive the death of one or more of the parties. They apply to actions involving torts to property and personal injury, but not torts involving intangible interests.
Plain English Explanation
When one person causes harm to another person, the law allows them to settle their problems in court. Traditionally, if one of the parties were to die, then there would be no way to continue the lawsuit. This caused a lot of problems. If Bob breaks Sam's arm, and then Bob dies, Sam's arm doesn't magically heal itself. Likewise, if before Sam can sue Bob in court, Sam gets run over by a train and dies, it doesn't seem very fair that Bob should not face consequences for breaking Sam's arm. "Survival Acts" fix this problem by allowing the lawsuit to survive the lives of any specific party.
