OLYMPIA -- A 21-year-old cannot file suit for a wrongful death that occurred when she was 15 because the statute of limitation has expired, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

That's despite the fact that the petitioner was a minor at the time of her father's death and so unable to file suit until she turned 18, the ruling added.

In Atchison v. Great Western Malting Co. (docket# 80034-1) the Supreme Court upheld a Clark County Superior Court ruling that granted the defendant's motion to dismiss Kaela Atchison's 2006 suit against it for the alleged wrongful death of her father.

The defendant argued that Atchison needed to file her suit before June 2003, three years after her father's death. Atchison appealed on the grounds that her minority tolled (delayed the start of) the statute of limitations, which therefore didn't start until she turned 18 in 2003.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Washington statute, which solely governs such cases, granted only a personal representative the right to sue for wringful death and minors cannot perform this role.

Therefore "Kaela could not have been a person entitled to bring the wrongful death action when the action accrued," wrote Justice Bobbe J. Bridge in the unanimous opinion. "Thus, the statute of limitations did not toll during her minority."

Bridge notes that the ruling "is unfortunate for some minors who are beneficiaries of wrongful death actions" but suggests several possible legislative remedies. These include giving minor beneficiaries right of action or explicitly allowing tolling for minority decedents.