Where decedent was survived by two children, and those two children filed a wrongful death claim pro se purporting to assert claims on their own behalf and on behalf of the other four children, the complaint was only proper to the extent the two plaintiffs were asserting their own right under the wrongful death statutes.
In Grose v. Stone, No. W2023-00090-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. April 25, 2024), decedent died in a car accident. Thereafter, two of decedent’s six children filed a wrongful death claim. The complaint stated that plaintiffs were acting on their own behalf, and on behalf of decedent’s other four children as administrators of decedent’s estate.
After multiple opportunities to hire counsel and several court dates, the trial court ultimately dismissed the complaint as a whole. The trial judge found that the complaint was void ab initio and constituted the unauthorized practice of law by the two plaintiffs. Plaintiffs appealed this ruling, and the Court of Appeals reversed dismissal, finding that the complaint was partially proper.
