Court Opinion

ID: 9701172
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:08:24.947334+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:20.430031
License: Public Domain

Larrow, J.
(Ret.), Specially Assigned, dissenting. This case is before us under the trial court pleadings. These allege the plaintiff Mary Hay to be permanently comatose as a result of physical injuries inflicted by the defendants. The issue involved in the appeal from dismissal of David Hay’s motion for joinder is his claimed right to recover for loss of his mother’s consortium. The majority opinion discusses loss of parental consortium at length. Although its specific holding relates to the permanent “brain death” of the mother, its general discussion makes it clear that this is not a sine qua non for liability, and that the Court is adopting a cause of action for a minor’s loss of parental consortium, without limitation.
This analysis of the holding elicits my dissent. I am convinced that this action is now one for wrongful death, subject to the statutory provisions of 14 V.S.A. § 1492(b), limiting damages to pecuniary injuries, except “in the case where the decedent is a minor child,” where damages for loss of love and companionship may be added. I do not feel this Court can simply ignore the existing statute and the express scope of its permitted recovery in the guise of adopting a “more liberal” rule. The decedent here is Mrs. Hay, not a minor. She is a decedent because 18 V.S.A. § 5218 provides, albeit cruelly, that one in her condition is “dead.”
In short, I would affirm the judgment below, because I feel that the type of recovery sought is expressly barred by the Wrongful Death Act, not subject to repeal or amendment by this Court for reasons other than constitutional. The general aspects of the opinion, sweepingly creating a “new cause of action,” I cannot concur with, both because I am not convinced of their wisdom and because I do not see them as required for this decision.
Further, although not compelling, I doubt the wisdom of launching a minority doctrine with such uncertain future support.*
*547I am authorized to state that Justice Peck joins with me in this dissenting opinion.

 The writer of the majority opinion is now retired, succeeded by the trial judge reversed. The present Chief Justice is disqualified by repre* sentation of parties below.