Opinion ID: 1758792
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: States Recognizing Child's Rights Have Rejected Parent's

Text: Finally, the Court suggests that, because some courts that have recognized parental consortium claims have rejected filial consortium claims, so too should Texas. 111 S.W.3d at 120. But most courts recognize the inconsistency in permitting parental consortium claims but denying those for filial consortium. See, e.g., Gillispie v. Beta Constr. Co., 842 P.2d 1272, 1274 (Alaska 1992) (We have already held that a wife has the right to sue for loss of `care, comfort, companionship and solace' resulting from an injury to her husband, and that a child is entitled to loss of consortium damages when his parent is tortiously injured. To now hold that a parent is not entitled to recover loss of society for the death of his or her child would run counter to this line of precedent.); Giuliani v. Guiler, 951 S.W.2d 318, 321 (Ky. 1997); Berger v. Weber, 411 Mich. 1, 303 N.W.2d 424, 434 (1981) (Levin, J., dissenting); Pence v. Fox, 248 Mont. 521, 813 P.2d 429, 433 (1991); Gallimore v. Children's Hosp. Med. Ctr., 67 Ohio St.3d 244, 617 N.E.2d 1052, 1057 (1993). More specifically, courts across the country widely acknowledge that, within each category of parental or filial consortium, permitting recovery for death but not serious injury creates a legal anomaly. See, e.g., Audubon-Exira Ready Mix, Inc., 335 N.W.2d at 149; Giuliani, 951 S.W.2d at 321; Berger, 303 N.W.2d at 426; Gallimore, 617 N.E.2d at 1057; Williams v. Hook, 804 P.2d 1131, 1136 (Okla.1990). Unsurprisingly, then, most of the states that recognize the child's consortium claim also recognize parents' reciprocal right to recover consortium damages. [4] Underlying each of these decisions is the notion that the parent-child relationship is reciprocal, despite the fact that each party to the relationship receives different benefits from the other. III