## Facts

- David Reagan was involved in a fight in the parking lot of K‑Jacs Saloon in Pasadena, Texas.
- During the altercation, the bar manager, Lester Vaughn, struck Reagan on the head with a baseball bat.
- Reagan suffered a severe, permanent brain injury and thereafter functioned at the level of a young child.
- Reagan and his minor daughter, Julia Reagan, sued Vaughn and the bar’s owners, Keith Nichols and Ernest Rosenovac, for negligence.
- The jury found Vaughn, Nichols, and Rosenovac each 20% negligent and Reagan 40% negligent.
- The jury awarded $2,432,000 to Reagan and $405,000 to Julia, including damages for loss of parental care, nurture, and guidance and for past and future mental anguish.
- The trial court rendered judgment on the verdict; the court of appeals deleted Julia’s loss-of-consortium damages; the Texas Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether Texas law permits a minor child to recover damages for loss of parental consortium when a parent is seriously, permanently, and disablingly injured (but not killed) by a third party’s tort.
2. Whether such recovery may include related mental-anguish damages tied to the impairment of the parent-child relationship.

## Decision

- The Texas Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals to the extent it deleted Julia’s damages for loss of parental consortium and otherwise affirmed the judgment.
- The court held that a minor child may seek damages for loss of parental consortium when the parent suffers a serious, permanent, and disabling injury caused by a third party’s tort.
- The court reinstated Julia’s jury award for loss of parental consortium (and the associated mental anguish awarded by the jury), leaving the comparative-fault findings and the remainder of the judgment intact.

## Legal Principles

- A minor child may recover damages for loss of parental consortium when a parent suffers a serious, permanent, and disabling injury proximately caused by a defendant’s tortious conduct.
- “Loss of consortium” is treated primarily as a category of recoverable damages for interference with a protected family relationship, rather than as a freestanding tort.
- The claim is limited by a seriousness threshold (serious, permanent, and disabling injury) to confine recovery to substantial impairments of the parent-child relationship.
- Injuries to familial relationships may be compensable under Texas common law when consistent with existing doctrines and policy considerations.

## Conclusion

Texas recognizes a minor child’s claim for loss of parental consortium (with related mental anguish as awarded) when a parent is tortiously and seriously, permanently, and disablingly injured, and the court reinstated the child’s jury award that the court of appeals had deleted.


Reagan v. Vaughn, 804 S.W.2d 463 (Tex. 1990)