21-5-1. Liability for wrongful death where damages for injury could have been recovered--Unborn child. Whenever the death or injury of a person, including an unborn child, shall be caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect, or default is such as would have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereto, if death had not ensued, then and in every such case, the corporation which, or the person who, would have been liable, if death had not ensued, or the personal representative of the estate of such person as such personal representative, shall be liable, to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death shall have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to a felony; and when the action is against such personal representative, the damages recovered shall be a valid claim against the estate of such deceased person. However, an action under this section involving an unborn child shall be for the exclusive benefit of the mother or the lawfully married parents of the unborn child.
Source: SL 1909, ch 301, § 1; RC 1919, § 2929; SDC 1939, § 37.2201; SL 1947, ch 172; SL 1984, ch 158, § 1.
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