§ 5/2-1713 Effect of death
§ 2-1713. Effect of death.
(a) For all future damages which the trier of fact has determined will accrue for the remainder of the plaintiff's life, payment for those damages shall continue until the later of the plaintiff's death or the time when the remaining life expectancy is reached. For all future damages which the trier of fact has determined will accrue for a definite number of years, payment for those damages shall continue for that number of years irrespective of the plaintiff's death.
(b) If, in an action for wrongful death, a judgment for periodic installments provides payments to more than one person entitled to receive benefits for losses that do not terminate under subsection (a) and one or more but fewer than all of them die, the surviving beneficiaries succeed to the shares of the deceased beneficiaries. The surviving beneficiaries are entitled to shares proportionate to their shares in the periodic installments not yet paid, but they are not entitled to receive payments beyond the respective periods specified for them in the judgment.
(c) If, in an action other than one for wrongful death, a judgment for period installments is entered and a person entitled to receive benefits for losses that do not terminate under subsection (a) under the judgment dies and is survived by one or more qualifying survivors, any periodic installments not yet due at the death must be shared equitably by those survivors.
(d) “Qualifying survivor” means a person who, had the death been caused under circumstances giving rise to a cause of action for wrongful death, would have qualified as a beneficiary at the time of death according to the law that would have applied in an action for wrongful death by the jurisdiction under which the issue of liability was resolved in entering the judgment for periodic installments.