False Pass,AK : Groups demand justice for those killed in Ride the Ducks crash on January, Wednesday 10th 2018

According to state law (RCW 4.20.020, approved by the governor on March 14, 1917), parents may bring wrongful death claims over the death of an adult child if they can prove financial dependency on the child. Washington state is only one of three states in the country that requires parents to be financially dependent on their adult children. (The others are California and Alaska.) Also in Washington, a parent cannot claim negligent death of a child after the child turns 18, even if the child was injured before that age.

Additionally, according to RCW 4.20.020, parents can only claim wrongful death only if they “are a resident within the United States at the time of his [or her] death.”

Literature from the Washington State Association for Justice (WSAJ) states that the law came from a time when children were farmhands — economically beneficial to their families — and are also rooted in xenophobia against Chinese nationals working in Washington in the 1900s. Current law dictates that the state is not liable for wrongful death based on national origin.

“We are embarrassed that we are treated different than American citizens,” Kim wrote in his statement, “and that Haram’s death means less because we do not live in the U.S. The unfairness hurts us. We don’t understand how a 100-year-old discrimination law can be used against our daughter and our family in a modern age.” After her death, Haram’s family donated her organs, and they were used to save 10 Washington residents.

Source :
Groups demand justice for those killed in Ride the Ducks crash