Fatal Accidents Act of 1976

The fatal accidents act of 1976 is the act of parliament of the United Kingdoms parliament, which enables the relatives of the people killed via the wrongdoing of some other party in order to recover the damages. The Act attained the royal consent on July 22, 1976, came into existence on September1, 1976, and primarily applies to Wales and England.                   

Background

The fatal accident act of 1846 has allowed the family members or the close relatives of the deceased person to claim for the damages incurred to them including financial, physical or psychological for the first time. Nevertheless, the fatal accident act of 1976 modernised the procedure of claiming for fatal accident and retracted the earlier legislation.  

The fatal accidents act of 1976

The fatal accident act of 1976 permits claims under three different heads, they are:

• Dependency claim: A dependency claim is the claim for the financial loss by the restricted class of the dependant
• Bereavement claims: The bereavement claim is a claim in recognition of the grief by the further limited class of the dependant, similar to the solatium in the Scottish law. This is an award fixed by the statue at £ 10,000
• Funeral expenses of the dependant

Some of the other aspects covered in the fatal accident act of 1976 include: 

(1) An action mentioned in the 1976 act might include or consists of a claim for the damages and loses of bereavement.

(2) Claim for the damages of the bereavement must only be for the advantage of:

• The wife or the husband of the demised
• The deceased was only a minor who never married 

(i) Of his parents/ guardians, only if he was legitimate
(ii) Of his mother, in case if the victim was illegitimate    

(3) Subject to clause

(4) Where there is the claim for the damages under the 1976 act for the advantage of both the guardians/ parents of the deceased, the amount awarded must be distributed equally among all (subject to any sort of deduction falling to be made in respect of the costs not recuperated from defendant). 

(5) The Lord Chancellor might be order made by the statutory instrument, subject to the annulment in the pursuance of the resolution of house of the parliament, alter this fragment by varying the amount for the time that is being specified in the subsection (3).

According to the act of 1976 defendant is the person who was residing with the deceased before the demise.