Opinion ID: 1117027
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Judicial Application of Collateral Estoppel to Loss-of-Consortium Actions: An Historical Perspective

Text: Nearly three decades ago, the supreme court of our neighboring state of Arkansas aligned itself with the then-minority view and opined: (1) that the consortium claim is derivative in the sense that it is dependent upon the right of the personally-injured spouse to recover against the defendant; (2) that every element of a personal-injury claim must be proved to support a loss-of-consortium claim and every defense good against the personal-injury claim is good against the loss-of-consortium claim; and (3) that the spouses are in privity for purposes of the operation of collateral estoppel. Sisemore v. Neal, 236 Ark. 574, 367 S.W.2d 417 (1963). The supreme court concluded: We think logic unquestionably supports [our alignment with] the view taken here [and our rejection of the then-majority view which] would authorize `two bites' and would have the actual effect of rendering the prior judgment, wherein [the defendant] was exonerated of liability, a nullity. Id. 367 S.W.2d at 418. Arkansas' minority view was exemplary. For example, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held: Because of the privity between the plaintiff husband in his [consortium] action and the plaintiff wife in her earlier [personal-injury] and considering further the fact that apparently no adversity of interest is shown as between the husband and his wife, and, finally because the determinative issue in the wife's action (alleged negligence of the common defendant and causation) is also the determinative issue in the husband's action, we hold that the husband was and is collaterally estopped from litigating the issue. Laws v. Fisher, 513 P.2d 876, 878 (Okla. 1973).