Farley v. Sartin
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
466 S.E.2d 522 (1995)
Cynthia Farley, about five months pregnant, was killed along with her unborn child in an accident involving a truck driven by Billy Sartin and owned by Lee Sartin Trucking (the Sartins) (defendants); medical evidence showed the unborn child, "Baby Farley," was not developed enough to have survived outside the womb. Farley's husband (plaintiff) sued for the child's wrongful death, but the trial court granted summary judgment for the Sartins, holding a nonviable fetus was not a "person" under West Virginia's wrongful-death statute.
Whether a jurisdiction's wrongful-death statute, which permits recovery only for the death of a "person," recognizes a cause of action for the wrongful death of an unborn child who was not viable outside the womb at the time of death.