## Facts

- Albert and Grace Wright’s five-year-old son, Douglas, was struck by a truck operated by Standard Oil’s employee while attempting to cross a highway alone.
- Douglas suffered catastrophic injuries, leaving him permanently disabled (paraplegic) and in need of continuous care.
- Grace Wright stopped outside employment and provided extensive nursing and caretaking services for Douglas.
- The Wrights sued Standard Oil and the driver for negligence, seeking consequential damages including medical expenses, the value of past and future nursing services performed by Mrs. Wright (and related lost earning capacity), and loss of Douglas’s earning capacity.
- The fact-finder found the truck driver negligent and found Albert Wright contributorily negligent for inadequate supervision of the child, assigning Albert two-thirds fault.
- The district court reduced all consequential damages, including sums allocated to Mrs. Wright, by the two-thirds attributed to Albert, treating the father as the sole owner of the parents’ consequential-damages claims and treating Mrs. Wright’s nursing services as part of the husband’s consortium interest.

## Issues

1. Whether a father’s primary duty to support a minor child makes him the sole owner of the parents’ consequential-damages claims arising from the child’s injury, such that the mother’s recovery is reduced by the father’s contributory negligence.
2. Whether a mother’s extensive nursing and caretaking services for an injured child are part of the husband’s consortium claim or a compensable loss belonging to the mother in her own right.
3. How consequential damages should be allocated between parents for purposes of applying the father’s contributory negligence under Mississippi law.

## Decision

- Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
- The court rejected the blanket reduction of Mrs. Wright’s allocated damages based solely on Albert Wright’s contributory negligence.
- The court held Mrs. Wright’s extraordinary nursing services were not merely part of her husband’s consortium interest and could constitute her separate, compensable interest.
- The court required a breakdown of medical and related expenses distinguishing those attributable to Mrs. Wright’s nursing services from other medical expenses, and directed reallocation consistent with the parents’ distinct legal interests.

## Legal Principles

- A father’s primary legal obligation to support a minor child does not, by itself, make the father the exclusive owner of all consequential-damages claims arising from the child’s injury.
- Extraordinary, quantifiable nursing services rendered by a mother for an injured child—beyond ordinary marital or household services—may constitute an independent, compensable loss of the mother rather than an element of the husband’s consortium.
- Contributory negligence reduces only the negligent claimant’s recoverable damages; courts must allocate and segregate categories of consequential damages according to who holds the legally protected interest before applying fault-based reductions.
- When damages include both general medical expenses and expenses attributable to in-home nursing services performed by a parent, the fact-finder must separate those components to permit accurate allocation and fault reduction.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit held that the district court improperly treated the father as sole owner of all parental consequential damages and improperly reduced the mother’s recovery based on the father’s contributory negligence; because the mother’s extraordinary nursing services could be her own compensable loss, the case was remanded for a detailed segregation and reallocation of damages consistent with each parent’s separate interests.


Wright v. Standard Oil Co., 470 F.2d 1280 (5th Cir. 1972)