Opinion ID: 2447668
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Loss of Consortium Claims

Text: We hold Dickinson waived his wife's loss of consortium claim by signing the release in the employment agreement. We find the holding of Jones v. Elliott [56] distinguishable on the facts of this case. In Jones we held a physically injured spouse may not unilaterally extinguish the loss of consortium claim of the other spouse by signing a general release, for the loss of consortium claim is not his to extinguish. [57] In Jones, we explained that the direct claim spouse must have a right to maintain a claim for personal injuries against the alleged tortfeasor before the noninjured spouse's claim for loss of consortium may arise. [58] Thus, loss of consortium is a derivative claim. The difference between this case and Jones is that in Jones the injured spouse had a claim against the tortfeasor and released the claim after it arose without his wife's knowledge or consent. Here, Dickinson waived all of his claims against DynCorp in a pre-injury limitation on liability agreement in return for benefits. Dickinson has no direct claim against DynCorp because he waived any claim based on negligence and, therefore, his spouse's loss of consortium claim has no predicate claim from which to derive.