In A Proceeding Which Only Affects The Rights Of The Beneficiaries, The Fiduciary Must Appeal In His Individual Capacity or Suffer Pecuniary Harm to Establish The Right To Appeal

Decedent died in an accident while working for his employer. The executors of Decedent's Estate filed a wrongful death and survival claim against his employer which eventually led to a settlement. Decedent's Last Will and Testament did not contain a residuary clause so there was a dispute over how the wrongful death and survival claims should be allocated. A wrongful death action is brought by a fiduciary of the estate for the exclusive benefit of the beneficiaries defined by R.C. 2125.02 to recover pecuniary and emotional loss suffered as a result of the premature death of the decedent. A survival action is brought by the decedent's fiduciary for the benefit of the decedent's estate for injuries suffered while the decedent was still alive. The trial court allocated 80% of the settlement proceeds to the wrongful death action and 20% of the proceeds to the survival action to be distributed pursuant to R.C. 2105.06.

The fiduciaries of decedent's estate appealed the trial court's allocation of the funds. The appellate court pointed out that the fiduciaries did not suffer any pecuniary harm as a result of the allocation of settlement proceeds, and questioned their standing to bring an appeal. In the appeal, the fiduciaries did not represent the beneficiaries and the beneficiaries did not have a desire to appeal the trial court's decision. In a proceeding which affects only the rights of the beneficiaries, the fiduciary must appeal in his individual capacity or he is presumed to be satisfied with the lower court's judgment. Because the fiduciaries did not appeal in their individual capacities and otherwise did not suffer harm, their appeal was dismissed.