§ 8.01-25.Survival of causes of action.

At common law, many causes of action died with the person. Section 8.01-25 reverses that default for Virginia: every cause of action, whether legal or equitable, that is cognizable in the Commonwealth survives the death of the person against whom the cause of action is or may be asserted, the death of the person in whose favor it existed, or the death of both.

Two provisos qualify that broad survival rule. Punitive damages cannot be awarded after the death of the party liable for the injury, so a defendant’s death cuts off exposure to that category of damages even though the underlying claim survives. And if the cause of action the decedent asserted during his lifetime was for a personal injury, and the decedent dies as a result of that same injury while a timely action for damages arising from it is pending, the action must be amended in accordance with § 8.01-56 rather than continuing unchanged.

The section closes with a definition that broadens its reach beyond individuals: as used here, “death” includes not just the death of a person but the termination or dissolution of any other entity, so a cause of action by or against an entity survives that entity’s termination or dissolution in the same way it would survive an individual’s death.