## Facts

- Martin Oil Company and James Hocker owned and operated a gasoline station in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
- While Jack Raymond Murphy’s truck was being filled with gasoline at the station, a fire allegedly caused by defendants’ negligence severely burned him.
- Murphy lived for nine days after the incident and then died from the burn injuries.
- The administratrix filed a two-count complaint:
  - Count I sought damages under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act for losses to the surviving spouse and next of kin.
  - Count II sought damages under a survival-type theory for Murphy’s pre-death conscious pain and suffering, lost wages between injury and death, and property damage (destroyed clothing).

## Issues

1. Whether the Illinois Survival Statute permits recovery for a decedent’s pre-death conscious pain and suffering, lost wages, and property damage when death results from the same wrongful act that caused the injuries.
2. Whether the Wrongful Death Act is the exclusive remedy for fatal injuries, barring survival recovery for the decedent’s pre-death injuries.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court held that the Survival Statute allows recovery for the decedent’s pre-death damages, including conscious pain and suffering, lost wages, and property damage, even when the injury caused the death.
- The court rejected prior Illinois authority treating wrongful death as the exclusive remedy in cases where the tort caused death.
- The court affirmed the appellate court’s reinstatement of Count II as to lost wages and property damage.
- The court reversed the appellate court’s affirmance of dismissal as to conscious pain and suffering.
- The judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the cause was remanded.

## Legal Principles

- The Survival Statute preserves the decedent’s existing causes of action for personal injury and related damages up to the moment of death; it is not limited to cases where death occurs from an unrelated cause.
- Wrongful death and survival actions address different injuries and different claimants: wrongful death compensates beneficiaries’ pecuniary losses from the death, while survival compensates the decedent’s pre-death losses.
- Both actions may proceed in the same case when a single wrongful act causes injury and death, subject to the rule against double recovery for the same element of damages.
- Prior decisions limiting survival recovery in fatal injury cases were overruled to the extent inconsistent with permitting survival damages for pre-death injuries.

## Conclusion

Illinois law permits concurrent wrongful death and survival claims arising from the same fatal incident, allowing recovery for the beneficiaries’ losses from the death and for the decedent’s pre-death pain and suffering, wage loss, and property damage, without duplicating damages.


Murphy v. Martin Oil Co., 56 Ill. 2d 423, 308 N.E.2d 583 (Ill. 1974)