Death During Personal Rights Proceeding: Continuation of Cost Allocation Proceedings

When a party dies during a pending administrative court proceeding concerning a matter of strictly personal rights, such as a protective custody order, the main subject of the case becomes moot and must be discontinued, but the proceedings regarding the associated court costs survive, requiring the deceased's heirs to be included to determine cost allocation. The court reasoned that while the claim concerning the highly personal right to liberty extinguished upon death, the procedural obligation for costs remains, and given the inability to assess cost allocation based on usual criteria (causation or likelihood of success) after the party's demise, and to prevent the legal representative from being uncompensated for acting in a time-sensitive, critical situation, the costs, including the representative's fees, should be equitably assigned to the state.