Court Opinion

ID: 9717873
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:11:58.866341+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:13:48.608256
License: Public Domain

Archer, J.
(dissenting). We are asked to determine whether the Court of Appeals recognition of a parent’s cause of action for the loss of filial society and companionship was a proper extension *300of this Court’s holding in Berger v Weber, 411 Mich 1; 303 NW2d 424 (1981). In Berger, this Court recognized a cause of action in favor of a child for the loss of parental society and companionship.
There are three alternatives for this Court in disposing of this matter. First, the Court could affirm the holding of the Court of Appeals that the reasoning in Berger supports a reciprocal cause of action in favor of parents for the loss of filial society and companionship. Second, the Court could distinguish between the rights of a child to parental consortium and those of a parent to filial consortium. Third, this Court could overrule Berger and eliminate the common-law cause of action in favor of a child for the loss of parental society and companionship.
Because the reasoning of the Court in Berger is logical and is based on valid policy considerations, the doctrine of stare decisis requires this Court to adhere to Berger as binding precedent. The plaintiffs cause of action in this case is different from that recognized in Berger; it is reciprocal. There are, however, no principled distinctions discernible regarding the injury to be redressed in the instant claim when it is compared with the cause of action in Berger. Therefore, I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.1
i
FACTS
On October 28, 1981, an automobile driven by *301the defendant, Bruce Smock, struck fifteen-year-old Valera Sizemore as she was riding her bicycle. Ms. Sizemore suffered a concussion, various abrasions, and hematomas in her left eye and calf. She has also alleged that she sustained severe kidney injuries, including the permanent atrophy of one of her kidneys and injury to the other requiring lifetime medication and the potential of dialysis in the future.
Valera Sizemore filed suit in Genesee Circuit Court against defendants Bruce Smock and Pete Alumbaugh, Inc., the owner of the vehicle Smock was driving. In addition to Valera Sizemore’s claim, the complaint contained a cause of action on behalf of Veda K. Sizemore, Valera’s mother, for the "loss of the companionship, society and protection of her daughter as well as the necessity to care for her daughter’s physical needs, and to provide medical care and treatment for her and parental concern regarding the serious injuries her daughter sustained.”
The defendants moved for summary disposition pursuant to GCR 1963, 117.2(1) (now MCR 2.116[C][8]) against Veda Sizemore. They argued that Michigan law does not recognize a parent’s claim for loss of society and companionship when a child is negligently injured. The trial court granted defendants’ motion and also determined that Veda Sizemore did not have a cause of action for meeting her child’s medical needs because she is already compensated for these expenses through the no-fault insurance act.
Plaintiff appealed as of right in the Court of Appeals. The Court reversed the judgment of the trial court, finding that under Michigan law a parent can maintain a cause of action for loss of *302the society and companionship of a negligently injured child. The Court agreed with the defendant, however, that the parent’s cause of action did not include medical expenses. It held that the exclusive remedy for her daughter’s medical expenses is through the no-fault insurance act.
The Court of Appeals relied on this Court’s decision in Berger, supra. It held that there was no reason that the instant claim should not be reciprocal to that recognized in Berger.2
The defendant appealed in this Court. We granted leave to appeal, limited to the question whether the common law of the State of Michigan should recognize a cause of action on behalf of a parent for loss of the companionship and society of a child negligently injured by a tortfeasor.3
ii
The Berger decision extended the common-law cause of action for loss of consortium to include a child’s claim for the loss of parental society and companionship. In Berger, the defendant argued that the absence of a sexual relationship between parent and child precluded a child’s claim for loss of parental consortium. This Court found the distinction to be unpersuasive.
Sexual relations are but one element of the spouse’s consortium action. The other elements— love, companionship, affection, society, comfort, services and solace — are similar in both relationships and in each are deserving of protection. [Berger, supra at 14.]
The significant factors common to the spousal *303consortium action and the cause of action recognized in Berger are unquestionably present in the cause of action involved in the instant appeal. In fact, an examination of the reasoning in Berger yields the inescapable conclusion that the instant claim was impliedly recognized in that decision.
The rationale in Berger drew heavily from the reasoning of Schockley v Prier, 66 Wis 2d 394; 225 NW2d 495 (1975). In Schockley, the parents of a minor child brought suit against two doctors and their insurer for injuries sustained by the child. The injuries were allegedly caused by the doctors’ negligence. In addition to the cause of action in favor of the child, the parents also requested damages for loss by the parents of the child’s aid, comfort, society, and companionship as a result of the negligently caused injury. The appeal in Schockley was limited to the issue whether a parent should be permitted to recover damages for the loss of aid, comfort, society, and companionship of a minor child who has been injured by the negligent acts of another.
The Schockley court first dealt with the issue whether the question at issue was best left to legislative resolution. The court declined to shirk its judicial responsibility. It stated that "it is as much our responsibility, as the legislature’s, to make changes in the law, if the common-law rule no longer fits the social realities of the present day.” Id. at 397. The court noted the garbled and illogical evolution of the common law regarding damages for consortium. It relied in part on Montgomery v Stephan, 359 Mich 33; 101 NW2d 227 (1960), in which this Court decried the irrational history of consortium damages and created a cause of action for the loss of spousal consortium.
The Schockley court noted that children are no longer merely economic assets. The court recog*304nized that the relationship between parent and child in present society primarily involves emotional ties rather than economic benefit to the parent. It concluded that its judicial responsibility to adapt the common law to fit current social realities required recognition of the right of parents to recover for loss of aid, comfort, society and companionship of a child negligently injured by a third party. Schockley v Prier, supra at 398-399.
This Court has also rejected the archaic notions of familial relationships which have caused the common law to evaluate these relationships in terms of pecuniary interests alone. In Wycko v Gnodtke, 361 Mich 331, 336-337; 105 NW2d 118 (1960), this Court stated:
It is not surprising that the courts of such a society should have read into [the measure of damages] not only the requirement of a pecuniary loss, but, moreover, a pecuniary loss established by a wage benefit-less-costs measure of damages. . . . Loss meant only money loss, and money loss from the death of a child meant only his lost wages. All else was imaginary. The only reality was the king’s shilling.
That this barbarous concept of the pecuniary loss to a parent from the death of his child should control our decisions today is a reproach to justice. [Emphasis added.]
The Wycko Court went on to hold that damages under Michigan’s wrongful death act for the death of a minor child were not limited to purely economic damages consisting of probable wages less the cost of the upkeep or maintenance of the child. The damage remedies available included compensation for loss of the society and companionship of the child. Id.
One of the policy considerations relied on in *305Berger, supra at 13, was a reflection in this state’s wrongful death act, MCL 600.2922; MSA 27A.2922, that consortium damages should be available to parents and children alike. Other courts have also found that recognition of filial consortium damages in wrongful death legislation requires similar recognition in the common law of negligence. In Dralle v Ruder, 148 Ill App 3d 961; 500 NE2d 514 (1986), the Illinois Court of Appeals analogized to that state’s wrongful death statute and its inclusion of damages for a parent’s loss of the society of a minor child to hold that a parent had a similar cause of action for a loss of society and companionship resulting from a nonfatal injury to their minor child. Id. at 962. The court dismissed arguments about the intangible nature of the parent’s loss and the difficulty in assessing damages in this type of action. Id. at 963. The court found that failure to recognize this cause of action, given the damages included under the wrongful death statute, would create a legal anomaly. Id. The Ohio Court of Appeals, with similar reasoning, has held that because its wrongful death statute compensates for loss of consortium its tort law regarding negligently caused injuries to a minor child should also include a damage remedy for loss of consortium. Norvell v Cuyahoga Co Hosp, 11 Ohio App 3d 70; 463 NE2d 111 (1983).
Berger represents a triumphant effort by this Court to recognize the present status of familial relationships and to adapt the common law to reflect this recognition. This is the unique province of the judiciary. Such efforts, when based on valid and logical policy considerations, are to be accorded deference in the deliberations of subsequent panels of this Court. Abendschein v Farrell, 382 Mich 510; 170 NW2d 137 (1969); Parker v Port Huron Hosp, 361 Mich 1; 105 NW2d 1 (1960).
*306Ill
This case presents a very difficult policy question. This Court is not, however, without guidance in its attempt to evaluate and balance the relevant competing policy considerations.
The common-law action for loss of consortium has changed dramatically from its origins as a means of redress for a husband or father for a third-party’s intentional interference with the services of the wife or child. As the action evolved to become a part of the law of negligence, it became unnecessary to show actual economic loss in order for a plaintiff to recover for loss of consortium. In Montgomery, supra, this Court repudiated the doctrine that allowed recovery only to the husband or father and held that the wife had a reciprocal right to recovery for loss of consortium in the spousal relationship.
Today’s majority has drawn a line that distinguishes between the cause of action for loss of the consortium of a parent in favor of a minor child and an action in favor of a parent for loss of the consortium of a minor child. I submit that there are substantially better points along the continuum at which to draw a line delimiting the liability of the negligent tortfeasor.4 The majority acknowledges that "any attempt to draw a meaningful distinction on the basis of the sentimental *307aspects of the consortium claim between the parties in the parent-child relationship would be specious and unavoidably futile.” Ante, p 292. I agree. The majority fails, however, to draw a meaningful distinction on any other basis between the cause of action recognized in Berger and that involved in the instant appeal.
The majority justifies its departure from reason, logic and stare decisis by stating that "it must look beyond logical analogies and balance the arguments in support of recognizing a new cause of action against public policy considerations and the social consequences of imposing yet another level of liability.” Ante, p 292. For example, the majority argues that "the burden of payment for additional consortium awards will be borne by the general public through the assessment of increased insurance premiums . . . .” Ante, p 295. All tort causes of action increase insurance costs, but we recognize them because we believe that certain injuries must be redressed in order to promote social stability and social responsibility. Surely the loss of the consortium of one’s child is devastating and should be recognized. Similarly, all tort injuries are compensated with money judgments; no one suggests that these damages "replace” what has been lost. That is why we refer to them as compensatory. The remedy is imperfect; however, it is more effective at placing the loss on the party at fault than no remedy at all.
The majority does not introduce any new public policy considerations to justify a departure from the reasoning of Berger.5 As previously noted, Berger drew heavily from Schockley. The cause of *308action recognized in Schockley was precisely the cause of action involved in the instant appeal. If that cause of action is to be dispensed with, and the underlying policy considerations are to be dismissed, then this Court must do more than merely "independently reexamine the various arguments and policy considerations which closely divided the Court in both Berger and Montgomery.” Ante, p 290. If for no other reason, the principle of stare decisis requires more.
CONCLUSION
The reasoning in Berger allows for no principled distinction between the child’s cause of action for loss of parental consortium and the parental action for loss of filial consortium. Thus, the Court of Appeals was reasonable and logical in its holding in the instant matter. For this reason, I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals, thereby creating a cause of action in Michigan on behalf of a parent for a negligent injury to a child that results in loss of consortium.

 The majority, at p 291, ns 15 and 16, misconstrues this argument regarding Berger. I do not suggest that Berger directly binds this Court in the instant case. The argument is that Berger is good law; its reasoning and policy considerations, when applied to the question presented here, are applicable and valid. Therefore, although there is no direct constraint imposed by stare decisis, the only logical outcomes are those listed in the immediately preceding paragraph. This argument is more fully developed in part hi.

 Sizemore v Smock, 155 Mich App 745, 746-747; 400 NW2d 706 (1986).

 Sizemore v Smock, 428 Mich 873 (1987).

 The majority notes that I do not attempt to suggest the final point of delimitation. I would not presume to do so on the briefs and record before us in this case. For the reasons stated in parts n and hi of this dissenting opinion, I can unequivocally state that the instant cause of action is one that should be included in our common law regarding negligent injury and the resultant loss of society and companionship.
Also, the "slippery slope” argument has never been less applicable than in relation to this cause of action. There is a clear qualitative distinction between the nuclear family and all other interpersonal relationships. There is no danger that lower courts will inadvertently be led to recognize a loss of consortium cause of action for cousins or-nephews on the basis of this case.

 The majority’s reasoning is essentially the same as that used against recognition of any cause of action. It is not that these considerations are irrelevant to the recognition of this cause of action, but that they are relevant to every cause of action in tort. Thus, the salient question is what makes them particularly relevant to this *308cause of action. I would suggest that the majority has failed to establish the more salient point.