Wrongful Death Suit: Shur Family v Utility, 2010

Mr. Shur froze to death in his apartment. 

Mr. Shur had a will. 

The will sent all of his hundreds of thousands of dollars to a charity (Bay Regional Hospital, NY) 

The family wants to sue the utility company for wrongful death, and collect money damages. 

It is unclear how at fault the utility company is, for the sake of this blog let us assume they are completely at fault in regards to Mr. Shurs death. In order for the family to recover, they must prove damages. Damages will be difficult to prove in an instance in which the dead family member was estranged from the family. A close friend of Mr. Shur may have better luck getting money from the Utility company.

If the relatives receive money it goes against justice. Mr. Shur felt a certain way about his family- I did not like you in life, I do not want you to benefit in my death. (Unless they can prove he did not snub them, but rather was a philanthropist, who felt his family did not need to inherit his money)

PREDICTION: Family will spend allot of money on lawyers and lose the lawsuit. Mainly because the utility company will argue thier actions did not directly kill Mr. Shur. They Utility company will ask why the family did for not check up on their elderly relative in the winter, something a reasonable family member would have done. 

Mr Shur died because his family did not care enough to make sure he did not freeze to death in an apartment, a phone call probably would have saved his life.