---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE--PROCEDURE IN PARTICULAR ACTIONS -- DEATH BY WRONGFUL ACT (Raises the minimum recovery in a civil action to recover for a wrongful death from $250,000 to $350,000 and automatically increases for inflation the minimum recovery annually on January 31. The increase is based on the consumer price index.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE--PROCEDURE IN PARTICULAR ACTIONS -- DEATH BY WRONGFUL ACT (Raises the minimum recovery in a civil action to recover for a wrongful death from $250,000 to $350,000 and automatically increases for inflation the minimum recovery annually on January 31. The increase is based on the consumer price index.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "SB 1056"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 1056 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Procedure", "Courts", "Death"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Euer", "LaMountain"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 12
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2023-05-19"
last_action: "2023-06-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b2e50f22-cae2-4fe5-90ba-bd574914562c"
source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
source_hash: "a18632a3a5c0e0cb885f181bf407ebb32c3b28a8d58fedadc35ccb4931893231"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 1056 (2023) — AN ACT RELATING TO COURTS AND CIVIL PROCEDURE--PROCEDURE IN PARTICULAR ACTIONS -- DEATH BY WRONGFUL ACT (Raises the minimum recovery in a civil action to recover for a wrongful death from $250,000 to $350,000 and automatically increases for inflation the minimum recovery annually on January 31. The increase is based on the consumer price index.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **1056 SUB A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText23/SenateText23/S1056A.pdf)

## Votes

- IN CONCURRENCE — **72–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage — **36–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Euer — primary (person)
- LaMountain — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2023-05-19** 05/19/2023 Introduced, referred to Senate Judiciary `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2023-05-26** 05/26/2023 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/01/2023)
- **2023-06-01** 06/01/2023 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
- **2023-06-10** 06/10/2023 Scheduled for consideration (06/13/2023)
- **2023-06-12** 06/12/2023 Proposed Substitute `substitution`
- **2023-06-13** 06/13/2023 Committee recommends passage of Sub A `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-06-13** 06/13/2023 Placed on Senate Calendar (06/14/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-14** 06/14/2023 Senate passed Sub A `passage`
- **2023-06-15** 06/15/2023 Placed on House Calendar (06/15/2023) `reading-3`
- **2023-06-15** 06/15/2023 House passed Sub A in concurrence `passage`
- **2023-06-16** 06/16/2023 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-06-24** 06/24/2023 Effective without Governor's signature `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b2e50f22-cae2-4fe5-90ba-bd574914562c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).