## Facts

- Jose Mauricio Campos was fatally injured when his bicycle was struck by a vehicle owned by LQ Management, LLC and driven by Robert Coleman in West Haven, Connecticut.
- The decedent’s spouse, Gregoria Campos, sued individually and as administratrix of the estate, alleging Coleman’s negligence caused the death.
- The couple’s three minor children asserted claims for loss of parental consortium arising from their father’s death.
- Defendants moved to strike the children’s consortium claims based on precedent declining to recognize a minor child’s independent parental-consortium action.
- The trial court struck the children’s claims; the remaining negligence and wrongful death claims proceeded to trial, resulting in a verdict for the plaintiffs on those claims.
- The children appealed the judgment insofar as it eliminated their loss of parental consortium counts.

## Issues

1. Whether Connecticut should recognize a minor child’s cause of action for loss of parental consortium resulting from a parent’s serious injury or death caused by a third party’s negligence.
2. If recognized, whether the claim should be limited as derivative of the injured parent’s cause of action and subject to joinder and other constraints to prevent indeterminate liability and double recovery.
3. Whether the newly recognized claim applies to cases pending at the time of the decision and, prospectively, to cases based on injuries occurring on or after the decision date.

## Decision

- The Connecticut Supreme Court overruled prior precedent and recognized a cause of action for a minor child’s loss of parental consortium.
- The court characterized the claim as strictly derivative of the injured or deceased parent’s underlying tort claim.
- The court limited the claim to minor children and to situations involving a parent’s serious, permanent, and disabling injury or death.
- The court held the rule applies to cases currently pending and to cases not yet filed in which the underlying injury occurred on or after the decision date.
- The judgment was reversed in part as to the order striking the children’s consortium counts and remanded for further proceedings on those claims; the verdict on the underlying negligence and wrongful death claims was left undisturbed.

## Legal Principles

- Connecticut recognizes a minor child’s derivative claim for loss of parental consortium when a parent suffers serious injury or death due to a third party’s negligence.
- The child’s consortium claim is contingent on, and rises or falls with, the parent’s underlying tort claim and is subject to the same defenses and limitations.
- Liability is confined by limiting the protected relationship (minor child–parent), requiring serious injury or death, and using procedural management (including joinder, itemized verdicts, and jury instructions) to reduce duplicative recovery.
- The rule applies to pending cases and, prospectively, to claims based on injuries occurring on or after the decision date.

## Conclusion

The court held that minor children may recover, on a derivative basis, for loss of parental consortium caused by a third party’s negligence when the parent is seriously injured or killed, and it reinstated the Campos children’s consortium claims for further proceedings while leaving intact the plaintiffs’ verdict on the underlying tort claims.


Campos v. Coleman, 319 Conn. 36, 123 A.3d 854 (Conn. 2015)