When someone you love dies because of another person's negligence, recklessness, or intentional act, the grief is overwhelming. The legal system cannot undo what happened. But if you are coping with a sudden loss, pursuing wrongful death damages in Missouri offers a way to secure your family's financial future and hold the negligent party accountable. Missouri law recognizes that the people left behind deserve compensation for everything they have lost—the income that kept the family stable, the presence that held the household together, and the future that was stolen.

Missouri's wrongful death statute provides one of the broader frameworks in the country for recovering damages. Unlike some states that impose caps on what families can recover, Missouri allows juries to consider the full scope of harm. Understanding what damages are available—and how they are proven—is essential for any family navigating this process. If you are exploring whether you have a claim in St. Louis or the surrounding areas, our wrongful death practice area page provides an overview of the legal framework.

The Statutory Framework: RSMo Section 537.090 and Wrongful Death Damages in Missouri

To understand how wrongful death damages are calculated, you must look at the statutory guidelines enacted by the Missouri legislature. The primary statute governing the calculation of damages is Section 537.090 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMo).

Under RSMo § 537.090, the judge or jury is authorized to award the surviving beneficiaries "such damages as the trier of the fact may deem fair and just for the death and loss, having regard to the pecuniary value of the services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training, and support" of which the survivors have been deprived because of the death.

Who Can Seek Recovery Under RSMo Section 537.080?

Before discussing the specific types of compensation available, it is essential to establish who is legally permitted to bring a claim and receive these damages. Under RSMo Section 537.080, Missouri divides potential claimants into three distinct classes:

Class I (Primary Claimants): The surviving spouse, children (or the descendants of any deceased children), and the parents of the deceased. If any of these relatives are alive, they have the exclusive right to bring the claim.
Class II (Secondary Claimants): If there are no Class I survivors, the deceased’s siblings (or their descendants) may file the wrongful death lawsuit.
Class III (Plaintiff ad Litem): If there are no Class I or Class II survivors, the court will appoint a "plaintiff ad litem" upon the petition of a person entitled to share in the proceeds.

Understanding these classes is critical because any recovery obtained in a St. Louis fatal accident lawsuit is meant to be shared among the members of the qualifying class, rather than going solely to the individual who filed the initial petition.

The Two Claims: Wrongful Death vs. Survival Action

Missouri law creates two distinct legal claims when someone dies due to another party's fault. They serve different purposes, compensate different losses, and are governed by different rules.

Understanding the Missouri Wrongful Death Claim

The wrongful death claim compensates the surviving family members for their losses. It is forward-looking—it asks what the survivors have been deprived of because of the death. This includes lost financial support, lost companionship, and the grief and emotional anguish the family endures going forward.

Under RSMo Section 537.080, the wrongful death claim is brought by the statutory beneficiaries listed above. The damages belong to these survivors, not to the estate of the deceased person, meaning they are generally shielded from the estate's creditors.

Understanding the Missouri Survival Action

The survival action, by contrast, compensates the deceased person for what they experienced before death. Under Missouri common law and the survival statutes, a survival action covers the pain and suffering the decedent endured between the time of injury and the time of death, along with any medical expenses incurred during that period.

The survival action is technically brought by the personal representative on behalf of the estate, and the damages flow directly to the estate. Even if the period between injury and death was brief—minutes or hours—the survival action can still recover significant damages if evidence shows the decedent was conscious and suffering during that time.

These two claims are often filed together in a single lawsuit, but they are legally independent. A strong litigation strategy typically pursues both to ensure the full scope of harm is addressed.

Economic Damages: The Financial Foundation of a Missouri Claim

Economic damages represent the measurable financial losses caused by the death. They are calculated with specificity, often supported by expert financial testimony, and typically form the largest single component of a wrongful death recovery.

Lost Income and Lifetime Earning Capacity

The most substantial economic damage in many wrongful death cases is the income the deceased would have earned over their remaining working life. This is not simply their current salary multiplied by years until retirement. It accounts for expected raises, promotions, career trajectory, benefits, retirement contributions, bonuses, and the present value of future earnings adjusted for inflation and discount rates.

When a family loses a primary breadwinner, the financial consequences can be catastrophic. In a major traffic wreck on a Missouri highway, our firm negotiated a $1,000,000 settlement in a car crash case, helping the surviving family members protect their financial future after a sudden, devastating loss.

Under RSMo Section 490.065, Missouri courts allow expert economist testimony to establish these projections. A forensic economist will typically analyze the decedent's education, work history, industry, age, health, and earning trajectory to build a comprehensive model of lifetime earnings. For a 35-year-old skilled tradesperson earning $75,000 annually, the lost earning capacity over a remaining work life of 30 years—accounting for wage growth, benefits, and present-value adjustments—can reach well into seven figures.

Lost Household Services

The deceased contributed more than a paycheck. They mowed the lawn, drove the children to school, cooked meals, managed household finances, and maintained the home. These services have direct economic value, and Missouri allows recovery for the cost of hiring professionals to replace them. Expert testimony can quantify the annual market value of household services and project that cost over the expected remaining lifespan of the deceased.

Medical and Funeral Expenses

If the decedent received medical treatment between the time of injury and death, those costs are recoverable—typically through the survival action. Emergency room visits, surgeries, intensive care, medications, and any other treatment expenses incurred before death are compensable.

Additionally, Missouri allows the recovery of reasonable funeral and burial expenses. This includes the funeral service, casket or cremation, cemetery plot, headstone, and related costs. While these amounts are modest compared to lost earning capacity, they are a recognized and recoverable category of damages under RSMo § 537.090.

Non-Economic Damages: The Human Cost of a Fatal Accident

Non-economic damages compensate for losses that do not carry a line-item price tag but are profoundly real. Missouri does not cap non-economic damages in standard wrongful death cases, giving juries the discretion to award compensation that reflects the true magnitude of the family's loss.

Loss of Companionship, Consortium, and Guidance

This is often the most emotionally compelling element of a wrongful death case. Loss of companionship encompasses the love, comfort, guidance, affection, and emotional support the deceased provided to their family.

For a Surviving Spouse: This includes loss of consortium—the intimate partnership, daily companionship, and shared life that the marriage represented.
For Children: It includes the loss of a parent's parental guidance, instruction, and counsel during formative years, their absence at graduations and weddings, and the emotional void that no amount of money can fill.
For Parents: If a parent loses a child, it captures the devastating loss of the child's future companionship and the reversal of the natural order of life.

Missouri juries take this category seriously. The testimony of family members describing their relationship with the deceased—the daily routines they shared, the roles the person played in the household, the empty chair at the dinner table—carries enormous weight.

Mental Anguish, Grief, and Bereavement

Survivors can recover damages for the emotional suffering and grief caused by the sudden death. This includes depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and the psychological toll of traumatic loss. Mental health treatment records, therapist testimony, and the observations of friends and family all support this element.

Understanding how pain and suffering is valued in Missouri provides helpful context here, because the same principles of documentation and specificity apply to the emotional damages claimed by wrongful death survivors.

Aggravating Circumstances: Punitive Damages in Missouri Wrongful Death Claims

In standard personal injury cases, punitive damages are governed by Section 510.265 RSMo. However, in wrongful death actions, Missouri law utilizes a unique concept known as "damages for aggravating circumstances." Under RSMo Section 537.090, a jury is permitted to consider the "mitigating or aggravating circumstances attending the death" when determining the final award.

Aggravating circumstances damages serve the same purpose as punitive damages: they are designed to punish the defendant for egregious misconduct and deter others from committing similar acts.

To recover damages for aggravating circumstances, the plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with a complete indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others. Examples of conduct that may warrant aggravating circumstances damages include:

A commercial trucking company that knowingly forced a fatigued driver to violate federal hours-of-service limits, leading to a fatal collision.
A drunk driver operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration far exceeding the legal limit while traveling at extreme speeds.
A property owner or corporation that ignored repeated, documented safety hazards that they knew would eventually cause fatal injuries.

While there is no fixed statutory cap on these damages under the wrongful death statute, the Missouri Supreme Court evaluates punitive and aggravating circumstance awards under constitutional due process principles, ensuring the amount bears a reasonable relationship to the compensatory damages.

How Missouri Juries Are Instructed: MAI 5.09

In a Missouri courtroom, the jury is not left to guess how they should calculate wrongful death damages. Instead, they are given explicit instructions approved by the Supreme Court of Missouri. The standard jury instruction for wrongful death damages is Missouri Approved Instruction (MAI) 5.09.

MAI 5.09 instructs the jury as follows:

"If you find in favor of plaintiff, then you must award plaintiff such sum as you believe will fairly and justly compensate the survivors of [decedent's name] for any damages you believe they sustained and are reasonably certain to sustain in the future as a direct result of the death of [decedent's name]..."

The instruction further directs the jury that they can consider:

The pecuniary value of the deceased’s services, consortium, companionship, comfort, instruction, guidance, counsel, training, and support.
The reasonable funeral and burial expenses.
The medical expenses incurred as a result of the injury causing death.
If submitted under MAI 10.04, any aggravating circumstances attending the death.

This instruction gives the jury immense latitude to evaluate the full "human value" of the life that was lost, reinforcing why thorough case preparation is essential.

Apportioning and Distributing Damages Under RSMo Section 537.095

Once a settlement is negotiated or a jury returns a verdict, the process of distributing wrongful death damages in Missouri is governed by RSMo Section 537.095. The proceeds cannot simply be divided among the heirs without court intervention.

The statute requires that the court hold an apportioning hearing. During this hearing, the judge will:

Confirm that all persons entitled to share in the recovery have been notified of the action.
Hear evidence regarding the individual relationship each beneficiary had with the deceased, including the level of financial dependency and emotional loss.
Apportion the settlement or verdict proceeds among the beneficiaries in a manner that is "fair and just" based on the evidence presented.
Order the payment of reasonable attorney's fees and litigation expenses from the recovery.

This hearing is mandatory, even if all surviving family members agree on how the money should be split. Having experienced counsel who understands how to present evidence at an apportionment hearing ensures that every family member's loss is fairly recognized.

Comparative Fault: How Missouri Handles Shared Responsibility

Missouri follows a pure comparative fault system under RSMo Section 537.765. This means that even if the deceased person was partially at fault for the incident that caused their death, the family can still recover damages—but the final recovery is reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to the decedent.

For example, if a jury determines that the total damages are $2 million but finds the deceased was 20 percent at fault for the accident, the court will reduce the award by 20 percent, resulting in a net recovery of $1.6 million.

Even when facing aggressive insurance companies trying to shift blame, our attorneys fight tirelessly for maximum recovery. For example, our legal team secured an $877,000 settlement in an underinsured motorist car crash case, ensuring that our client was fully compensated despite the limited insurance of the at-fault driver.

Unlike states with modified comparative fault rules (which bar recovery entirely if the plaintiff is 50 or 51 percent at fault), Missouri's pure comparative fault system allows a family to recover damages even if the deceased was primarily responsible, ensuring they receive some level of financial protection.

Building a Strong Case for Wrongful Death Damages in Missouri

The strength of a wrongful death damages case depends on diligent preparation that begins immediately after the loss. To secure the full compensation allowed under Missouri law, several key steps must be taken:

Preserve Financial Records: Tax returns, W-2s, pay stubs, employment contracts, benefit statements, and promotional history form the analytical backbone of the economic damages claim.
Document the Relationship: Photographs, family videos, text messages, letters, and journals that illustrate the bond between the deceased and their survivors act as vital evidence for companionship and consortium claims.
Seek Grief Support and Mental Health Treatment: Professional counseling provides vital emotional support during a devastating time, while also establishing a clinical record of the psychological impact of the loss.
Retain Certified Experts Early: Forensic economists, medical specialists, and accident reconstructionists must be engaged early to preserve evidence and construct reliable projection models that satisfy the strict requirements of RSMo § 490.065.
Act within the Statute of Limitations: Under Missouri law, the statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim is generally three years from the date of death. While this may seem like a long time, compiling the necessary evidence, establishing the estate, and filing the lawsuit require early action.

Our trial attorneys have a proven record of courtroom success, which includes having won a $950,000 jury verdict in a personal injury case in a conservative Missouri jurisdiction. We prepare every wrongful death claim as if it is going to trial, giving our clients maximum leverage during settlement negotiations.

FAQ About Wrongful Death Damages in Missouri

What types of wrongful death damages are available in Missouri?

Under RSMo § 537.090, families can recover economic damages (lost income, lost household services, medical expenses, and funeral costs), non-economic damages (loss of companionship, consortium, guidance, and mental anguish), and damages for aggravating circumstances if the defendant acted with complete indifference or conscious disregard for safety.

Is there a statutory cap on wrongful death damages in Missouri?

No, Missouri does not impose a cap on non-economic damages in standard wrongful death cases. Juries have full discretion to award what they believe is fair and just. However, in cases involving medical malpractice that results in wrongful death, statutory caps on non-economic damages do apply under RSMo Section 538.210.

What is the purpose of an apportionment hearing under RSMo § 537.095?

The apportionment hearing is a mandatory court proceeding where a Missouri judge reviews the wrongful death settlement or verdict and decides how the proceeds should be distributed among the eligible beneficiaries. The court hears evidence of each survivor’s relationship with the deceased to ensure the distribution is fair and just.

Can we still recover wrongful death damages if our loved one was partially at fault?

Yes. Under Missouri’s pure comparative fault system (RSMo § 537.765), you can still recover damages even if your loved one was partially at fault. The total damage award will be reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to the deceased by the jury.

What is the statute of limitations for a wrongful death claim in Missouri?

In most cases, a wrongful death lawsuit must be filed within three years from the date of the person's death. Failing to file within this window will permanently bar the family from seeking compensation. Some exceptions or shorter timelines may apply if the claim involves a government entity or medical malpractice.

If you have lost a family member due to someone else's negligence in St. Louis or anywhere in Missouri, you deserve an advocate who will stand by you and fight for the full measure of justice. Contact OTT Law at (314) 710-2740 for a free, compassionate consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different. Contact OTT Law at (314) 710-2740 for a free consultation specific to your situation.

Wrongful Death Damages in Missouri: What Compensation Is Available