NEW YORK'S LAW FOR INCIDENTS RESULTING IN DEATH

    New York's law about wrongful death is statutory. The Estates, Powers and Trusts Law contains Article 5 entitled "Family Rights" which in turn contains Part 4 entitled, "Rights of Members of Family Resulting from Wrongful Act, Neglect or Default Causeing Death of Decendent".  Article 5 Part 4 contains the following Sections: 

• § 5-4.1. Action by personal representative for wrongful act, neglect or default causing death
• § 5-4.2. Trial and burden of proof of contributory negligence
• § 5-4.3. Amount of recovery
• § 5-4.4. Distribution of damages recovered
• § 5-4.5. Non-marital children
• § 5-4.6. Application to compromise action

    As you can see the section numbers in the EPTL begin with a reference to the Article and Part Numbers.

Wrongful Death Case Law 

There is a right to Wrongful death damages even though the distributee is a self-supporting adult ($43,000 for past and future pecuniary loss)
Bennett v Henry,  2007 NY Slip Op 03087 (2nd Dept., 4/10/2007)

One element of a Cause of Action for Conscious Pain and Suffering in a Death Case is that the decedent had some level of consciousness for a period of time after the accident
Bennett v Henry,  2007 NY Slip Op 03087 (2nd Dept., 4/10/2007)