Court Opinion

ID: 9639376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:15:02.926537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:17.028299
License: Public Domain

B. Robbins, Judge, concurring. I agree with Judge Griffen’s opinion in which we affirm the trial court’s decision in this case. I write separately to make clear that we are not holding, or at least I am not, that recovery on a spouse’s loss of consortium claim is subject to her husband’s, or his wife’s, child support obligation. Here, although appellant may have been consorting with his present wife when his claim of medical malpractice arose, the wife who could possibly have had a loss of consortium cause of action was the appellee. From what I can glean from appellant’s abstract, the alleged medical malpractice occurred in connection with surgeries that appellant underwent in August 2000. Appellant and appellee were not divorced until September 2001. The record does not reflect when appellant and his present wife were married. Furthermore, appellant does not contend that the trial court erred by not attributing some portion of the $247,858.15 net recovery to his present wife. Rather, he contends the trial court erred by not accepting appellant’s determination that his present wife was entitled to precisely one-half of this amount, inasmuch as that is the amount that appellant gave her. Even if appellant’s wife was entitled to some portion of the recovery, appellant has failed to convince that the trial court was clearly erroneous in not finding that she was entitled to $123,929.00.