David, J.
On occasion, a case arises that demonstrates the enduring importance of drafting a will. This is one such case. The present dispute arises out of a wrongful death suit initiated by David Shaner after his wife Laura’s death due to complications with the administration of dialysis treatments. David sought two categories of damages contemplated by Indiana’s wrongful death statute: damages related to medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses and additional damages including loss of consortium, lost earnings and wages, and loss of additional employment benefits. During litigation, David died intestate, leaving no immediately ascertainable heirs. Defendants, Dr. Albert Milford, St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers, Inc., and TRC-Indiana, LLC, moved for partial summary judgment on David’s claim for damages related to loss of consortium, arguing any damages in excess of medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses would be punitive in nature because David left no heirs. The trial court granted the Defendant’s motion and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
We grant transfer today to reverse the trial court’s grant of partial summary judgment and hold that the wrongful death and survival statutes enable David’s claim to survive regardless of the existence of an heir. Because we are not convinced the proper party is maintaining David’s claim, however, we also instruct the trial court to determine whether there is a proper party to continue the action as contemplated by the relevant statutes.
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The parties in this case ask us to affirm our Court’s prior decision in Bemenderfer v. Williams, 745 N.E.2d 212 (Ind. 2001), albeit for different reasons. Horejs argues Bemenderfer should be read to authorize a claim for survivor damages that extends beyond the death of a party regardless of the existence of an heir. Meanwhile, Defendants argue Bemenderfer turned specifically on the existence of an heir and that policy considerations discussed in Bemenderfer cut in their collective favor to foreclose a claim for survivor damages. Although we find that neither the relevant statutes nor Bemenderfer require an heir for this type of claim to survive the death of a party, we are not convinced the proper party is before the Court to continue David’s claim for survivor damages. Each of these issues will be discussed in turn.
I. The relevant statutes do not preclude an action for survivor damages and Bemenderfer does not change that result.
Defendants in this case argue that the wrongful–death statute must be harmonized with the survival statute to require that an heir take up the claim on behalf of the decedent’s estate. Reading these statutes together, however, we see no indication in the text of either statute that David’s claim for survivor damages terminated upon his death simply because he had no heirs. A plain reading of the text confirms that the claim for survivor damages, once properly asserted, does not abate due to the death of the once-surviving spouse.
This Court’s prior decision in Bemenderfer does nothing to change this result. Rather, the holding in that case reinforces this interpretation. The facts presented in that case are nearly identical to the facts of the present action. The wife in Bemenderfer died as a result of complications from a laparoscopic examination and her husband and daughter sought both final–expense and survivor damages under the wrongful death statute. Id. at 214-15. During the pendency of that lawsuit, the husband died, leaving the couple’s daughter as the personal representative of both estates. Id. at 215. The doctor–defendant moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that any damages beyond final–expense damages were foreclosed by the husband’s death. Id. The trial court ultimately denied the defendant’s motion and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Id.
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We decline to carve out an exception to the central holding of Bemenderfer in today’s opinion. After all, a wrongful death action is “entirely a creature of statute.” Durham ex rel. Estate of Wade v. U-Haul, 745 N.E.2d 755, 758 (Ind. 2001). Because the plain language of the wrongful death and survival statutes require that a properly–accrued claim does not abate, we hold that David’s claim for survivor damages could have survived regardless of the existence of an heir. Therefore, summary judgment on this basis was inappropriate.
II. The proper party to this claim remains unclear.
Although we hold today that an heir was not required under the wrongful death and survival statutes for David’s claim to continue, we are not convinced that the Estate of Laura Shaner is the proper party to assert this claim. Defendants have hinted as much, arguing that the co– administrators of Laura’s estate should not be the party pursuing this claim. Rather, as Defendants suggest, David’s estate should have taken up this claim when it had the opportunity. [Footnote omitted.]
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Conclusion
We hold that David’s claim for survivor damages did not abate upon his death and was not dependent on the existence of an heir. Therefore, summary judgment on this claim was inappropriate. We reverse the trial court’s grant of partial summary judgment and remand this matter for additional proceedings.
Rush, C.J., and Massa, Slaughter, and Goff, JJ., concur