Families Feud Over Dead Teen's Damages
Ga. appeals panel sides with guardians of teen's child over teen's parents, but high court could review case
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Reprints & PermissionsThe Georgia Supreme Court could be the next venue to decide who can recover any damages from the death of a teenager in an accident with a police car -- the boy's parents or the daughter whom he didn't live to see born.
The unusual legal battle has raged since October 2007, when Byron Trent Pyles, who went by Trent, died at age 16 after his automobile crash with a Locust Grove police officer. Trent had been driving to apply for a pizza parlor job when the officer's police van veered into oncoming traffic, according to Atlanta lawyer Frederick D. Burkey, who represents Trent's parents. The parents, Rebecca Lynne deVente and Byron Keith Pyles of Henry County, are pursuing a wrongful death action in Henry County against the officer and the city police department.
The problem is that another family has brought a wrongful death action against the city over Trent's death. Five months after Trent died, another teenager, Heidi Flora, gave birth to Trent's daughter, Allison Trent Flora.
Before Allison was even born, Heidi's mother, Hannelore H. Flora, filed a declaratory judgment action against Trent's parents, asking for a ruling that Allison is Trent's only heir and the sole potential claimant over Trent's death. Trent's parents initially contested that Trent was Allison's father but conceded that point after paternity testing was conducted during the litigation. Still, they are fighting the Floras' claim that Allison is the sole rightful beneficiary of any wrongful death recovery.
Burkey, who lost the case for Trent's parents at the Georgia Court of Appeals, said it's a case of first impression. "There's never been a situation that I've found in Georgia involving the same fact pattern," said Burkey.
Stockbridge, Ga., lawyer Allen W. Bodiford won the case for the Floras at the Court of Appeals, but he's not trumpeting the outcome as ground-breaking. "I think it's just regular wrongful death law," he said.
State wrongful death statutes provide that a surviving spouse may recover the full value of the life of the deceased in a wrongful death action. If there's no surviving spouse, the children of the deceased are next in line, followed by the deceased's parents.
On behalf of Trent's parents, Burkey has argued that in order for Allison to fit the definition of a surviving child under the wrongful death statute, her family needs to show that the baby was "quick" in the womb at the time of Trent's death. Georgia case law has defined "quickening" as the point at which a fetus is first capable of moving within the mother's womb, generally putting that time between the 10th week and the fourth month of pregnancy. Burkey argues that a just result would be one in which Trent's parents divided any recovery in a wrongful death lawsuit with baby Allison.
Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian J. Amero granted summary judgment for the Floras, ruling that Allison has the exclusive right to bring a wrongful death action over Trent's death. Trent's parents appealed to the Court of Appeals but did not persuade Presiding Judge G. Alan Blackburn and Judges A. Harris Adams and Sara L. Doyle.
Doyle wrote for the panel that it would construe the word "child" literally, following the usual rules of inheritance, under which a child born out of wedlock may inherit from the father if there is clear evidence of paternity. Also under those rules, wrote Doyle, a child of the decedent born after the decedent's death is considered the same as a child alive at the decedent's death as long as the child was conceived prior to the decedent's death, born within 10 months after the parent's death and survived at least 120 hours after birth.
"To require Flora to demonstrate that the child was 'quick' at the time of her father's death, as urged by [Trent's] parents, would ignore the practical reality that there is today a classic wrongful death scenario -- a living child seeking to recover for the death of her father," wrote Doyle. "Thus, the requirement to demonstrate quickness is not consistent with the explicit statutory language that 'a child ... may recover for the homicide of the ... parent ... .' Further, because the nature of a wrongful death action is derivative of the decedent's right of action, to ignore the laws of descent and distribution would run counter to the essence of a wrongful death claim."
The appeals panel also found unpersuasive the argument that sharing any award would be the fairest outcome. "[S]imply because the parents wish to share in any wrongful death award does not render an inequitable result in light of the priority ordinarily given to children by the statute, which makes a wrongful death action exclusive to the party entitled to bring it," wrote Doyle.
Burkey said Trent's parents will petition the state Supreme Court to look at the case. He said it's unjust to preclude parents from recovering over the death of their minor son or even investigating how he died. "It's not just about the money," said Burkey. "They want to know what on earth happened."
Bodiford doesn't sound very worried about a potential third round at the state Supreme Court. "My personal opinion is that the Court of Appeals did the right thing," said Bodiford. "I just hate that it's taken two years."
The case was deVente v. Flora, No. A09A116.
