Court Opinion

ID: 9567227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:51:03.413091+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:27.109964
License: Public Domain

NOBLE, Justice (concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the majority that the case should be reversed because of the erroneous determination by summary judgment that the decedent was contributo rily negligent as a matter of law. I must, however, disagree with the holding by the majority that a parent may sue his child in tort if the child has reached the age of twenty-one years, even though he is living in the parents’ home, under their care, custody, control, and completely supported by them. Here, the defendant’s third-party action against Warren depends entirely upon whether the decedent, Warren’s father, would have had a right of action against him in tort. Rodgers v. Galindo, 68 N.M. 215, 360 P.2d 400. The majority recognize this principle, but conclude that a parent can maintain a tort action against a child who has reached the age of twenty-one years regardless of the fact that the child remains in the parental home and is dependent upon his parents for support. The majority, contrary to what I consider not only the weight of authority, but contrary to the better-reasoned decisions, reach this conclusion upon the basis that a child- becomes emancipated as a matter of law upon becoming twenty-one years of age. Pointing out that New Mexico has no applicable statute, the majority apply what they term a common-law rule declaring an infant to be emancipated as a matter of law when -he reaches twenty-one. Academically, there appears to be a considerable division of authority on the question'of whether emancipation of children by their parents had any foundation in the common law. 39 Am.Jur., Parent and Child, § 64; Cafaro v. Cafaro, 118 N.J.L. 123, 191 A. 472. An examination of those decisions holding a child to be emancipated upon reaching majority reveals that they were largely concerned with the rights, as between parents and child, to services and earnings of the child and the right to sue and recover therefor. As so confined, parental emancipation in its general terms signifies a surrender or renunciation of the correlative rights and duties concerning the care, custody and earnings of a child. Upon attaining twenty-one years of age, but not before, the child may elect to sever the relationship and the concurrence of the parent is not essential to make the severance complete and effective. Alexandria v. Bethlehem, 16 N.J.L. 119, 31 Am.Dec. 229; Brown v. Ramsay, 29 N.J.L. 117; Delaware, L. & W. R.R. v. Petrowsky, 250 F. 554 (2d Cir. 1918). The question, then, of whether a child has manifested an election to sever the family relationship upon reaching the age of twenty-one and thus become emancipated is one of fact. In the instant case, we are bound by the undisputed facts supporting the motion for summary judgment. These are that even though Warren had reached the age of twenty-one years, he was attending the University, was living in his parents’ home, and was being supported by them. The record contains nothing to indicate that Warren had elected to sever the family relationship. Upon these facts there has not been that termination of the family relationship necessary to constitute the complete emancipation which permits a suit for negligence by the parent against his child. The situation is analogous to a determination of whether the family-purpose doctrine applies to a motor vehicle used by an adult child. In Burkhart v. Corn, 59 N.M. 343, 284 P.2d 226, we held that parents who furnished an automobile for family use were, under the family-purpose doctrine, liable for its negligent operation by an adult married son who lived in the parents’ home, worked for them on their ranch, and used the vehicle on his days off. The rule denying an unemancipated minor child the right to maintain an action in negligence was grounded upon sound public policy in Nahas v. Noble, 77 N.M. 139, 420 P.2d 127. The basis of the rule rests in the necessity for the encouragement of family discipline. Suits by parents against a child were said in Nahas to “tend to disrupt the family relationship because of the antagonism implicit in such suits.” In Nahas we not only denied a minor unemancipated child the right to sue its parent but, likewise, held that where the injury occurred during minority, the child’s disability did not vanish upon her becoming emancipated by marriage. Certainly, the same sound considerations which prevent such a child from suing its parent upon becoming emancipated apply to prevent a child who continues to live in the parental home, to be under the care, custody and control, and supported by its parents from maintaining such a suit. The disability to sue does not, as a matter of law, disappear upon the child reaching the age of twenty-one years. Under such circumstances, the family relationship upon which the public policy denying the right to sue is grounded is just as strong as in the case of an unemancipated minor child. Of course, the-rule which denies a child the right to sue its parent applies with equal force to the right of a parent to sue a child. I can see no logic or reason in holding that a parent may not sue an adult child for negligence merely because the accident occurred while the child was a minor, and at the same time holding that if the accident occurred on the child’s twenty-first birthday the parent may sue even though the same family relationship exists as before his birthday. The dismissal of the third-party complaint against Warren Fitzgerald should be affirmed.