LEGISLATION-STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION-VALIDITY OF CANON THAT STATUTES IN DEROGATION OF THE COMMON LAW SHOULD BE STRICTLY CONSTRUED

Plaintiffs brought suit to recover damages for the death of their adopted son under the Mississippi wrongful death act, which provides that an action may be brought by "the parent for the death of the child." The defendants incorporated in their answer a special plea that the statute does not vest a cause of action in adoptive parents. On appeal from a judgment sustaining this plea, without prejudice to the rights of the deceased's natural parents to bring another action, held, affirmed. The Mississippi wrongful death statute gives a right of action to natural parents only. Boroughs v. Oliver, (Miss.

1953) 64 S. (2d) 338.