§ 71.004.Benefitting from and Bringing Action

Who benefits and who may sue, and the list is closed.

The action is for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased.

Three categories, and no others. Siblings cannot recover. Grandparents cannot. A grandchild cannot. Nor can an unmarried partner, however long the relationship. Texas wrongful death is confined to the spouse, the children, and the parents.

"Children" and "parents" are not limited to minors or to dependants — an adult child may recover for a parent's death, and a parent for an adult child's.

Subsection (b) makes the action collective. Those individuals may bring it, or one or more of them may bring it for the benefit of all. There is one action, not one per beneficiary, and a single claimant's suit carries the others.

Subsection (c) supplies a backstop. If none of them has begun the action within three calendar months after the death, the decedent's executor or administrator shall bring and prosecute it — unless requested not to by all those individuals.

So the estate representative has a duty to act on the family's behalf if the family does not, and the family can stop that only by unanimity. The provision protects a claim that might otherwise lapse while relatives are grieving or disagreeing.