Opinion ID: 2193164
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Heading: Child's action for loss of parental consortium.

Text: As stated at the outset, the first important issue presented by this appeal is whether this court should recognize an independent right of action in a child to recover for the loss of society and companionship of a parent who has been tortiously injured by a third party. Before addressing the parties' specific arguments, it will be helpful to examine the background and current status of this asserted cause of action in Iowa and elsewhere. Until recently, a child's cause of action for loss of parental consortium was unknown to the common law. See Hankins v. Derby, 211 N.W.2d 581, 582 (Iowa 1973). Within the last two years, however, two jurisdictions have recognized such a cause of action. See Ferriter v. Daniel O'Connell's Sons, Inc., ___ Mass. ___, 413 N.E.2d 690 (1980); Berger v. Weber, 411 Mich. 1, 303 N.W.2d 424 (1981). All other jurisdictions which have considered the issue have declined to so extend the common law. See generally Annot., 69 A.L.R.3d 528 (1976 & Supp.1981). In Hankins v. Derby , this court similarly declined to recognize such an independent cause of action in the child. 211 N.W.2d at 585-86. While acknowledging the importance of a child's interest in maintaining viable family relationships, and conceding that the asserted cause of action carried great emotional appeal, the Hankins majority declared that recognition of the child's right of recovery was more properly an issue for legislative determination. 211 N.W.2d at 582, 585. In addition, the court stated that it was inhibited from recognizing such a cause of action by section 613.15, The Code 1971. 211 N.W.2d at 585. That statute, which remains unchanged in the current Code, provides: Injury or death of spousemeasure of recovery. In any action for damages because of the wrongful or negligent injury or death of a woman, there shall be no disabilities or restrictions, and recovery may be had on account thereof in the same manner as in cases of damage because of the wrongful or negligent injury or death of a man. In addition she, or her administrator for her estate, may recover for physician's services, nursing and hospital expense, and in the case of both women and men, such person, or the appropriate administrator, may recover the value of services and support as spouse or parent, or both, as the case may be, in such sum as the jury deems proper; provided, however, recovery for these elements of damage may not be had by the spouse and children, as such, of any person who, or whose administrator, is entitled to recover same. The Hankins majority concluded that the quoted statutory provision clearly permits recovery for all of the elements of damages asserted by plaintiff [1] and that [i]t limits procedurally only the manner in which and the proper party by whom, the cause of action may be maintained.... 211 N.W.2d at 586. Thus, Hankins in fact determined that section 613.15 provided a statutory means of recovering damages for a child's loss of parental consortium, but also held that, by operation of the statute, any claim for such damages on the child's behalf must be brought by the injured parent or his estate.
Plaintiffs advance two principal arguments in support of their contention that trial court erred in dismissing the claim of Linda's children for loss of parental consortium. First, they urge that section 613.15, as interpreted in Hankins, be declared unconstitutional. Plaintiffs assert that the statute as interpreted violates the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment by denying a child's independent cause of action for parental consortium, while Iowa law otherwise permits a parent's separate action for loss of a child's consortium, see Iowa R.Civ.P. 8, as well as an independent action for loss of spousal consortium, see Fuller v. Buhrow, 292 N.W.2d 672, 674-76 (Iowa 1980); Acuff v. Schmit, 248 Iowa 272, 78 N.W.2d 480 (1956). Alternatively, plaintiffs ask this court to abandon the Hankins interpretation of section 613.15 and to recognize a common law cause of action by a child for loss of parental consortium due to the tortious injury of his parent. Because plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of section 613.15 as interpreted in Hankins, it is necessary to reexamine that decision to determine whether it correctly interpreted the statute to bar a child's independent recovery for loss of parental consortium. We note that the perceived inhibiting effect of section 613.15 was not the sole basis for the Hankins decision, and that no constitutional challenge to the statute was presented in that case. Thus, a closer examination of the Hankins interpretation of section 613.15 is appropriate at this time. We find that several difficulties inhere in the Hankins view of the statute. First, section 613.15 provides that the injured person may recover the value of services and support as spouse or parent, or both, and that recovery for these elements of damage may not be had by the spouse and children, as such, of any person who ... is entitled to recover same. (Emphasis added.) Because the statute is worded so as to apply equally to spouses and children, it must bar a spouse's independent action for consortium if it indeed bars the child's action. However, independent claims for spousal consortium are regularly brought in Iowa by the noninjured spouse, as evidenced even by Gregory's claim in the case at bar. See, e. g., Fuller, 292 N.W.2d at 674-76; Acuff, 248 Iowa 272, 78 N.W.2d 480. It has never been held that section 613.15 bars those claims. A second difficulty is that even though Hankins states that section 613.15 covers all of the elements of damages asserted by plaintiff in that casei. e., loss of companionship, society, care, attention, kindness, guidance, comfort and solacethe only elements of damage mentioned in the statute itself are medical expenses and the value of services and support as spouse or parent, or both. Because support refers to financial maintenance and the providing of material comforts, the Hankins court apparently construed the word services to include the intangible elements of damage pleaded in that case. In this respect, Hankins is buttressed by Iowa-Des Moines National Bank v. Schwerman Trucking Co., 288 N.W.2d 198, 204 (Iowa 1980), in which this court said: In the context of parent-child relationships, we find no reason to assume the legislature intended loss of services as used in section 613.15, The Code, to have a different meaning from loss of services in former Iowa R.Civ.P. 8. We construed the latter provision to include loss of companionship and society. (Citations omitted.) Also, in Schmitt v. Jenkins Truck Lines, Inc., 170 N.W.2d 632, 664-65 (Iowa 1969), four members of an equally divided court apparently viewed parental affection and guidance as part of the services referred to in section 613.15. A contrary view of the statute was, however, expressed by this court in Fuller, cited earlier. In that case, we observed that consortium damages in Iowa are limited to compensation for the loss of such intangible elements as company, cooperation, affection and aid and that these are to be distinguished from the tangible elementsmedical expenses, services and supportcovered by section 613.15. Fuller, 292 N.W.2d at 675. Fuller, in turn, is supported by Acuff, 248 Iowa at 274, 78 N.W.2d at 481-82, where this court made a similar statement and noted that the value of services is not included in a spousal consortium claim in Iowa. Thus, two lines of cases have emerged, one construing services in section 613.15 to include intangible elements of damage in the context of a child's loss of parental consortium, and the other construing the same word in the same statute to exclude such intangible elements when the claim is for a spouse's loss of consortium. Because the statute cannot have two meanings, depending on the party to whom it is applied, we must determine which meaning was intended by the legislature.
Research convinces us that the word services in section 613.15 was not meant by the legislature to include society, companionship or any of the related intangible elements of damage which comprise a consortium claim in Iowa. The earliest version of section 613.15 to appear in the Iowa statutes was enacted in 1911. See 1911 Sess., 34th G.A., ch. 163, § 1. Prior to that time, a husband's independent cause of action for loss of the society of his wife had become firmly established as a part of Iowa's common law. See Mowry v. Chaney, 43 Iowa 609, 611 (1876) (husband, suing in own right and not as administrator of wife's estate, could recover for loss of her society during period between injury and death); McKinney v. Western Stage Co., 4 Iowa 420, 424 (1857) (husband might maintain his separate action for any loss sustained by him in consequence of being deprived of the society of the [negligently injured] wife); Note, Loss of Consortium in Iowa, 10 Drake L.Rev. 33, 36 (1960). Under the law prior to 1911, the estate of a woman who did not have an income of her own would be able to recover little or nothing for her wrongful death. This was because such damages were measured, for both men and women, by the present value of the estate the decedent would have accumulated but for the untimely death. See Druker, The Question of Damages Resulting From Recent Legislative Changes, 15 Drake L.Rev. 107, 108-09 (1966). Presumably to remedy this situation, the legislature in 1911 enacted the forerunner of section 613.15, which allowed a jury, for the first time, to consider the value of a woman's services as a wife or mother in making a wrongful death award. See 1911 Sess., 34th G.A., ch. 163, § 1. A successor statute, passed in 1941, allowed the value of an injured woman's services to be considered also in cases where her injury did not result in death. See 1941 Sess., 49th G.A., ch. 297, § 1; § 613.11, The Code 1946. In 1916, only five years after the initial statute allowing recovery for the value of a woman's services was enacted, this court apparently found the statute inapplicable to a claim for loss of a spouse's society. Lane v. Steiniger, 174 Iowa 317, 318-19, 156 N.W. 375, 376 (1916). But see Jacobson v. Fullerton, 181 Iowa 1195, 1201-02, 165 N.W. 358, 359-60 (1917). Because the deceased wife in Lane had survived for some period between injury and death, the court stated that the husband might have maintained an action for loss of his wife's society. Lane, 174 Iowa at 318, 156 N.W. at 376. The court acknowledged, however, that he could not have maintained an action for loss of her services, because the 1911 statute placed that right of action exclusively in the hands of the administrator of her estate. Id. at 319, 156 N.W. at 376. The 1941 version of the statute was similarly interpreted in DeMoss v. Walker, 242 Iowa 911, 48 N.W.2d 811 (1951), where an estate administrator sought recovery for loss of the seventy-seven-year-old decedent's services as a mother. The court noted that services as used in the statute referred to a woman's menial household labor and her services as administrator of the internal affairs of her home. Id. at 914, 48 N.W.2d at 813. The court denied recovery for loss of the woman's services only because there was no evidence that she regularly provided any such services to her children, all of whom were adults living in their own homes. Id. Furthermore, even though the woman's death terminated her relationship with her children and thus resulted in their loss of her companionship, the court observed that damages for loss of society were not recoverable under the statute. Id. at 915, 48 N.W.2d at 814. See also Medd v. Westcott, 32 F.R.D. 25, 27-28 (N.D.Iowa 1963) (Iowa cases appear to indicate that man whose wife survived for four months before dying of injuries had independent action not eliminated by § 613.11 [the immediate predecessor of section 613.15] for loss of wife's `love and affection, society, companionship and consortium during those months, but that he could not claim damages for loss of her aid and services); Acuff, 248 Iowa at 276, 78 N.W.2d at 483 (right to bring independent action for loss of consortium clearly existed at common law so far as the husband was concerned, and we find no statute which deprives him of the same.); Druker, supra, at 112 (Iowa court has long held that loss of services in section 613.15 and its predecessors refers to a pecuniary loss and not one based on a consideration of ... loss of society and companionship.). The foregoing authorities, along with Fuller and Acuff, demonstrate that this court's original and more consistent construction of services in section 613.15 and its predecessors has been that it applies only to the tangible services of a spouse or parent. In the four times the statute has been amended or superseded, [2] the legislature has not once indicated that this longstanding construction was incorrect. Therefore, we hold that the legislature did not intend section 613.15 to apply to claims for loss of society, companionship and the other intangible elements that come under the rubric of consortium in Iowa. To the extent our prior cases are inconsistent with this holding, they are overruled. Our resolution of this question makes it unnecessary to consider appellants' constitutional challenge to section 613.15.
Having determined that section 613.15 has no inhibiting effect upon our decision, it remains for us to decide whether we should recognize an independent action by a child for loss of parental consortium due to a third party's tortious injury of the parent. Our analysis must take into account the existence of related causes of action under Iowa law. As noted, a married person in Iowa may maintain an independent action for loss of consortium of an injured spouse. In addition, a parent may sue for loss of services, companionship and society resulting from injury to or death of a minor child. Iowa R.Civ.P. 8. Plaintiffs argue that logic and fairness demand extension of a similar right of recovery to the child. Before examining that argument, we find it beneficial to review the evolution of rule 8. The rule was originally an 1860 statute under which a parent was allowed to recover the expenses and actual loss of service resulting from wrongful injury or death of his minor child. § 2792, The Code, Revision of 1860. This statute may have been based on the common law rule that a father was entitled to the wages earned by a minor child and to the economic value of his services. See Pawnee Farmers' Elevator Co. v. Powell, 76 Colo. 1, 7, 227 P. 836, 839 (1924); Meredith v. Buster, 209 Ky. 623, 625, 273 S.W. 454, 454 (1925); Stewart v. City of Ripon, 38 Wis. 584, 588 (1875). In 1943, the framers of the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure decided to make the statute a part of the rules. See 1943 Sess., 50th G.A., ch. 278, at 288. Eventually, this court in a 5-4 decision construed the term services in rule 8 to include companionship and society. Wardlow v. City of Keokuk, 190 N.W.2d 439, 448 (Iowa 1971). Any debate over that construction would now be moot, because two years after the Wardlow decision rule 8 was amended to explicitly include companionship and society. See 1973 Sess., 65th G.A., ch. 316, at 660, 676-78. The existence of a parent's independent action for loss of consortium under rule 8 presents certain problems. While a spousal consortium claim may possibly be distinguished from a child's claim for loss of parental consortium on a number of grounds, see, e. g., Borer v. American Airlines, Inc., 19 Cal.3d 441, 448, 138 Cal.Rptr. 302, 307, 563 P.2d 858, 863 (1977); Russell v. Salem Transportation Co., 61 N.J. 502, 505-06, 295 A.2d 862, 863-64 (1972), a parent's claim for loss of the child's consortium appears to be more difficult to distinguish. In a recent case, the California Supreme Court stated that it was [u]npersuaded of any legal distinction between a parent's claim for loss of a child's consortium and a child's claim for loss of a parent's consortium. Borer, 19 Cal.3d at 444, 138 Cal.Rptr. at 304, 563 P.2d at 860. There being no equivalent of our rule 8 under California law, [3] the court then proceeded to deny both the child's cause of action in Borer and the parent's cause of action in a companion case, Baxter v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 19 Cal.3d 461, 138 Cal.Rptr. 315, 563 P.2d 871 (1977). Given the existence of rule 8, the first question we must face is whether the policy considerations which other courts have viewed as weighing against recognition of the child's cause of action remain persuasive in a jurisdiction which has already recognized the parent's cause of action.
A number of the reasons traditionally given for rejecting the child's cause of action are not convincing, even in the absence of a parental right of recovery. The argument that no precedent exists, if ever a worthy reason for denying recovery, is no longer valid in light of Ferriter and Berger. The contention that recognition of such a cause of action is a question for the legislature ignores the fact that the action for loss of consortium is a creation of the common law, and that the development of the common law is within the proper sphere of our authority and responsibility. We observe that this court did not await legislative action to abrogate the common law rule which prevented a wife from suing for loss of spousal consortium. See Acuff, 248 Iowa 272, 78 N.W.2d 480. Also without merit is the floodgates argument that recognition of the child's right of action will force the court to recognize similar claims by siblings, grandparents, other relatives or friends. We believe a court should have no trouble limiting the cause of action to the two relationships, husband-wife and parent-child, in which the loss suffered is likely to be greatest. See Berger v. Weber, 82 Mich. App. 199, 210, 267 N.W.2d 124, 129 (1978), aff'd, 411 Mich. 1, 303 N.W.2d 424 (1981). It has further been argued that the child's cause of action should be denied because it would lead defendants to attack the quality of the parent-child relationship in order to contest the issue of damages; because the damages would be remote and uncertain; and because it would be anomalous to protect against negligent interference with a child's interest in parental companionship when Iowa law does not protect that interest from intentional interference by way of an alienation of affections action. See Wheeler v. Luhman, 305 N.W.2d 466 (Iowa 1981). In addition, the inability of money to compensate for intangible losses has been cited as a reason for denying recovery. Borer, 19 Cal.3d at 447, 138 Cal. Rptr. at 306, 563 P.2d at 862. In the context of Iowa law, we are unpersuaded by these arguments, because they carry no greater weight in relation to a child's claim than they would in relation to a parent's or spouse's claim. There would be no greater incentive for a defendant to attack the quality of the underlying relationship in the case of a child's claim than there is in the case of a parent's or spouse's claim, and yet that possibility has not deterred us from recognizing either of the latter claims. The uncertainty and remoteness of damages and the incompensability of the loss are present in the parent's claim for loss of a child's consortium no less than they would be in the converse situation, and yet rule 8 allows the parent's claim. Finally, we protect a spouse against negligent interference with the marital relationship even though we do not recognize a cause of action for intentional alienation of spousal affections. See Fundermann v. Mickelson, 304 N.W.2d 790 (Iowa 1981). We find no anomaly here. The distinction is not between intentional and negligent torts; there is no reason why a person could not recover for loss of consortium resulting from an intentional physical or mental injury to his or her spouse. Rather, we deny recovery when the consortium is lost because the spouse voluntarily abandons the marital relationship, with the encouragement of a third party, but we allow recovery when the consortium is lost because the spouse is involuntarily injured by a third party. A similar distinction would apply in the context of a child's claim for loss of parental consortium. As further reason for denying the child's cause of action, defendants point out that the common law gives a child no enforceable claim against his parent for anything other than basic support. They argue that recognition of a child's right to parental society, companionship and training would require courts to allow children to sue their parents for negligently or willfully failing to provide those elements in the parent-child relationship. This argument also lacks merit. First, we observe that the existence of spousal and parental consortium claims in Iowa has not opened the door to damage suits by persons whose spouses or children fail or refuse to provide adequate companionship. Second, it is not necessary that an interest be based on a legally enforceable entitlement in order to be compensable in damages, Schmitt, 170 N.W.2d at 664; one need only show that there was a reasonable certainty of receiving benefits with which the tortfeasor unreasonably interfered. See Frohwein v. Haesemeyer, 264 N.W.2d 792, 795 (Iowa 1978) (recognizing cause of action for wrongful interference with a bequest); McPeek v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 107 Iowa 356, 362-63, 78 N.W. 63, 65 (1899) (holding defendant liable for negligently causing plaintiff to lose chance of winning reward); Note, The Child's Right to Sue for Loss of a Parent's Love, Care and Companionship Caused by Tortious Injury to the Parent, 56 B.U.L. Rev. 722, 730-31 (1976). This principle is inherent in rule 8, for a parent has no more legal entitlement to his child's society and companionship than does a child to that of his parent.
Another group of concerns is based on what we perceive as a valid distinction between the parent's claim and the child's claim: An injured child has only two parents, but an injured parent may have any number of children. See, e. g., Borer, 19 Cal.3d at 445, 138 Cal.Rptr. at 305, 563 P.2d at 861 (injured woman's nine children sued for loss of her consortium). Thus, defendants argue, recognition of a cause of action for parental consortium would expose tortfeasors to a substantial accretion of liability... arising out of a single transaction. It is also contended that this increase in potential liability would be a cost ultimately borne by society as a whole, both through higher insurance premiums and as a result of a rise in the number of uninsured tortfeasors. See Borer, 19 Cal.3d at 447, 138 Cal.Rptr. at 306, 563 P.2d at 862; Russell, 61 N.J. at 506, 295 A.2d at 864. While these arguments are persuasive when viewed in the abstract, they lose force in light of the fact that parental consortium damages have heretofore been available in Iowa under section 613.15, as interpreted in Hankins. Under that interpretation of the statute, which we today reject, a tortfeasor could be held liable for the loss of parental consortium suffered by his victim's children, see Schwerman, 288 N.W.2d at 204, even though the claim could be pursued only by the injured parent or by a deceased parent's estate. Plainly, the tortfeasor's potential liability is the same, regardless of who brings the claim. Thus, in practical effect, our recognition of a child's independent action for loss of parental consortium would not increase a tortfeasor's potential liability; in fact, a refusal to recognize such an action at this time would result in a restriction of that liability, because our rejection of the Hankins interpretation means section 613.15 is no longer available as a means of recovering parental consortium damages. Perhaps the principal difficulties with recognizing an independent consortium action in a child, as opposed to an action that may be pursued only by the injured parent, are procedural and administrative. Certain problems arise from the fact that, because each child of an injured parent would have an independent right of action, a multiplicity of litigation could result from a single incident. While the same may be said of a parent's independent claim under rule 8, the fact is that parents are more likely to join their rule 8 claims with the injured child's claims since the parents are usually in control of the child's lawsuit. Because a minor child is never in control of his injured parent's lawsuit, the possibility of separate lawsuits brought at different points in time is increased. This is particularly so because of section 614.8, The Code, which provides that the limitations period on a minor child's claim cannot expire before he reaches nineteen. Possible consequences of this potential multiplicity of suits include an increase in litigation costs, additional burdens on an already-crowded court system and the possibility that settlements with injured parents will be discouraged because the children's independent claims would not be extinguished. Arguably, there is also a possibility that damages awarded to the child in a subsequent independent suit may overlap with those already awarded to the parent, because the jury in the parent's case may have enlarged its award somewhat to compensate for the loss of companionship suffered by the children. A possible solution to these problems would be a requirement of compulsory joinder of the child's consortium claim with his injured parent's claims. See Love, supra, at 626-28; 56 B.U.L.Rev., supra, at 732-33. Other courts have recognized new causes of action for loss of consortium on the condition that such claims be joined with those of the primary tort victim. See Shockley v. Prier, 66 Wis.2d 394, 404, 225 N.W.2d 495, 501 (1975) (parent may maintain action for loss of child's consortium provided, and on condition, that the parent's cause of action is combined with that of the child for the child's personal injuries.); Ekalo v. Constructive Service Corp. of America, 46 N.J. 82, 92, 215 A.2d 1, 6 (1965) (In recognizing a wife's claim for loss of consortium, we may, of course, condition it upon joinder with her husband's claim....). The alternative would be to require joinder whenever feasible, without making the joinder requirement absolute. See Diaz v. Eli Lilly and Co., 364 Mass. 153, 162-63, 302 N.E.2d 555, 560-61 (1973); Fitzgerald v. Meissner & Hicks, Inc., 38 Wis.2d 571, 580-82, 157 N.W.2d 595, 599-600 (1968). Even in the absence of joinder, the potential problem of overlapping recovery may be solved by jury instructions which make it clear that damages for the children's loss of society and companionship are not to be included in the injured parent's award and that the children are entitled to pursue an independent claim for such recovery. If the jury is made aware that the children have their own action, it will not perceive the need to compensate their loss in the parent's suit. 56 B.U.L.Rev., supra, at 735-36. Where both parent and child join in one suit, such instructions would provide the additional benefit noted in Berger, 82 Mich. App. at 210, 267 N.W.2d at 129: Rather than having juries make blind calculations of the child's loss in determining an award to the parent, a child's loss could be openly argued in court and the jury could be instructed to consider the child's loss separately. Finally, even where the parent's and children's claims are joined in one action, there is the problem of finding an equitable way to apportion damage awards among the various children. Ideally, awards would be allocated in proportion to the value of society and companionship that each child lost, which may be greater for some children than for others. However, this would create serious proof problems and might tend to produce family disharmony. Love, supra, at 624-26. Thus, an equal apportionment of the award may ultimately be deemed preferable.
Having examined the possible drawbacks, we turn to considerations weighing in favor of recognizing a child's independent action for loss of consortium. First, we note that there has been a growing trend to recognize minor children as having independent identities and possessing certain rights of their own. See, e. g., Carey v. Population Services International, 431 U.S. 678, 97 S.Ct. 2010, 52 L.Ed.2d 675 (1977); Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969); 56 B.U.L.Rev., supra, at 742-43. Recognition of a child's cause of action for loss of parental consortium would be in keeping with that trend. Moreover, unless sound reasons exist for disparity in treatment, children ought to be accorded the same protection and the same legal redress for wrongs done them as adults enjoy. See 56 B.U.L.Rev., supra, at 742. In addition, to recognize a right of recovery for a parent's loss of a child's consortium, and not for a child's loss of a parent's consortium, runs counter to the fact that in any disruption of the parent-child relationship, it is probably the child who suffers most: Since the child in his formative years requires emotional nurture to develop properly, the loss of love, care and companionship is likely to have a more severe effect on him than on an adult; and society has a strong interest in seeing that the child's emotional development proceeds along healthy lines. Moreover, an adult is in a better position than a child to adjust to the loss of a family member's love, care and companionship through his own resources. He is capable of developing new relationships in the hope of replacing some of the emotional warmth of which he has been deprived. A child, however, is relatively powerless to initiate new relationships that might mitigate the effect of his deprivation. Legal redress may be the child's only means of mitigating the effect of his loss. 56 B.U.L.Rev., supra, at 742. See also Comment, The Child's Cause of Action for Loss of Consortium, 5 U.San.Fern.V.L.Rev. 449, 467-68 (1977). Although damages can never replace a parent's companionship, comfort, affection and guidance, they can help compensate for the effects of those losses in a number of ways, as will be demonstrated in our subsequent discussion. Also weighing in favor of recognizing the child's cause of action is the fact that the more drastic change in our law would result not from recognition of the claim, but from its denial. As noted earlier, under the Hankins decision, damages for loss of parental consortium have been available in Iowa by way of section 613.15. Now that we have rejected that statute as a vehicle for the injured parent to recover those damages on the child's behalf, denial of the child's cause of action would leave a family with no means of seeking redress for the child's intangible, but very real, losses. The present case provides an example of the consequences of such a denial. Allegedly because of defendants' negligence, Linda Weitl is now blind and severely brain damaged. Both conditions are permanent. As a result, her three children are likely to be totally deprived of any meaningful relationship with her. While Linda may seek damages on their behalf for loss of her services as a parent, such damages would provide only for tangible parental services such as cooking, laundering, keeping the children clean and safe, and transporting them to appointments and activities. On the other hand, Linda's husband may find that he needs to employ a person who can enter into a personal relationship with the children and provide them with companionship and guidance; he may need to curtail his working hours, and thus his income, in order to spend more time with the children himself; he may eventually find one or more of the children to be in need of counseling for emotional problems arising from the loss of maternal companionship and guidance. Yet none of these compensatory measures may be possible if the children are denied recovery for loss of their mother's society and companionship. Finally, we believe there would be merit in requiring that damages for loss of parental consortium be awarded separately to the child, rather than to the injured parent as required by Hankins. Such a separate allocation helps ensure that the money will actually be used to benefit the child whose loss it is intended to compensate, rather than being used for some other purpose by the parent.
In the final analysis, we conclude that the reasons for recognizing a child's cause of action for loss of parental consortium in Iowa outweigh any problems such an action may present. Accordingly, we hold that a minor has an independent cause of action for loss of the society and companionship of a parent who is tortiously injured by a third party so as to cause a significant disruption or diminution of the parent-child relationship. We limit damages under this cause of action to the period of the child's minority, even though we recognize that adult children may also benefit from their parent's society and companionship. We do so because minors are the group most likely to suffer real harm due to a disruption of the parent-child relationship. [4] In addition, such a requirement provides parity with rule 8, which limits the parent's consortium damages to the period of the child's minority. Lastly, because of the multiplicity of litigation that could otherwise result when an injured parent has a number of children, we condition our recognition of the child's cause of action on a requirement that the child's claim be joined with his injured parent's claims whenever feasible. If a child's consortium claim is brought separately, the burden will be on the child plaintiff to show why joinder was not feasible.