## Facts

- Dolores Feliciano and Marcial Feliciano cohabited for about twenty years and described their relationship as marriage-like, but they were not legally married when Marcial was injured in 1981.
- During cohabitation, Dolores asserted they used Marcial’s surname, held themselves out as spouses, maintained joint finances and property, and were mutually dependent for companionship and support.
- Marcial, an employee of Rosemar Silver Company, suffered personal injuries allegedly caused by wrongful conduct of a co-employee acting in the course of employment.
- Dolores sought damages for loss of consortium arising from Marcial’s injuries.
- Dolores and Marcial married in 1983, after the injury.

## Issues

1. Whether a person who was not legally married to the injured partner at the time of injury may recover loss-of-consortium damages based on a long-term, marriage-like cohabiting relationship.
2. Whether a later marriage can create or relate back to establish consortium rights for an injury that occurred before the marriage.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed summary judgment for Rosemar on Dolores’s loss-of-consortium claim.
- The court held that Massachusetts limits loss-of-consortium recovery to a lawful spouse, and the marriage must exist at the time of injury.
- The court rejected extending consortium claims to unmarried cohabitants, even where the relationship is stable, long-term, and resembles marriage.
- The later marriage did not create consortium rights for a pre-marriage injury.

## Legal Principles

- A common-law loss-of-consortium claim in Massachusetts belongs only to a lawful spouse.
- Consortium rights are tied to a valid marriage existing when the actionable injury occurs.
- Expanding consortium to nonmarital relationships is disallowed both to preserve the distinct legal status of marriage and to maintain a clear, administrable boundary limiting tort liability.
- Fact-intensive standards (e.g., “stable and significant” relationship tests) are insufficient substitutes for the formal marriage requirement.

## Conclusion

Massachusetts confines loss-of-consortium damages to plaintiffs who were legally married to the injured person when the injury occurred; long-term cohabitation and subsequent marriage do not qualify an unmarried partner for consortium recovery.


Feliciano v. Rosemar Silver Co., 401 Mass. 141, 514 N.E.2d 1095 (Mass. 1987)