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Collins v. Sotka4/29/1998
At that point, the family knows, or with reasonable diligence should know, that a wrongful death has occurred. A person's disappearance is insufficient because the person may have voluntarily disappeared or may have been kidnapped but is still alive. Even the discovery of a dead body may not be sufficient when accident and suicide remain possible explanations. A legal determination by the county coroner that the death is the result of a homicide may be necessary to establish that a wrongful death has, in fact, occurred.
This position is consistent with our previous holdings in Oliver v. Kaiser Community Health Found. (1983), 5 Ohio St.3d 111, 114, 5 OBR 247, 250, 449 N.E.2d 438, 441; Skidmore & Hall v. Rottman (1983), 5 Ohio St.3d 210, 5 OBR 453, 450 N.E.2d 684; Liddell v. SCA Services of Ohio (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 6, 635 N.E.2d 1233; Ault v. Jasko (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 114, 637 N.E.2d 870; and NCR Corp. v. U.S. Mineral Products Co. (1995), 72 Ohio St.3d 269, 649 N.E.2d 175, and could equitably be applied to all wrongful death actions caused by murder or foul play, not just those proven beyond a reasonable doubt in the criminal context. If there is to be a further extension beyond our traditional discovery rule, the General Assembly should debate the public policy issues and decide the appropriate boundaries of any further extension.
While I applaud the goal of the majority to allow an injured party to seek compensation, I cannot agree with its solution of creating an extension of the discovery rule. Therefore, I respectfully Dissent.
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