Tennessee Wrongful Death and Creditor Claims

The proceeds of a wrongful death action go directly to the spouse and the other statutory beneficiaries, Kline, 69 S.W.3d at 202 n.3, and they pass free and clear of any claims of the decedent’s creditors, Anderson v. Anderson, 366 S.W.2d 755, 756 (Tenn. 1963) (citing former Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-609, currently Tenn. Code Ann. § 20-5-108(b)). The proceeds never become part of the decedent’s estate.  Cooper, 313 S.W.2d at 448 (“Neither the claim nor the recovery under this situation here becomes a part of the estate of deceased . . . .”); Lawson v. Lawson, No. M2009-00537-COA-R3-CV, 2010 WL 3853289, at *2 (Tenn. Ct. App. Sept. 28, 2010) (holding that voluntarily tendered insurance proceeds should be tendered in the wrongful death tort action, not in probate, because “the damages assessed in the wrongful death case are not a part of the decedent’s estate that pass by will but, instead, pass by statute to specified individuals”); Holliman v. McGrew, 343 S.W.3d 68, 73 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2009) (“In a wrongful death action, . . . neither the claim nor the recovery becomes a part of the estate of the deceased.”). Even when the wrongful death right of action is prosecuted in the name of the decedent’s personal representative rather than by the spouse or the other next of kin, the personal representative asserts the claim on behalf of the beneficiaries, not on behalf of the decedent or the decedent’s estate.  Johnson, 665 S.W.2d at 718 (“While an action for wrongful death, of course, may be instituted and maintained by an administrator, . . . it has long been settled that the administrator sues as a representative of the next of kin, and not as a representative of the estate or of creditors.”); Cooper, 313 S.W.2d at 448 (“[T]he personal representative as such has no interest in recovery but is only a medium for enforcing the rights of others.”).