EveryBody's Guide to the Law

Suits Between a Husband and Wife
A while ago in the development of our law, you could not sue your spouse for injuries he or she
inflicted on you, even if he or she acted intentionally to hurt you. For example, if a wife deliberately
shot her husband and injured him, the husband could not bring a civil suit against her.
(But it was different if the wife shot and killed her husband. Besides being criminally responsible
for murder or manslaughter, she would forfeit all rights to inherit her husband’s estate. This
remains the law today.)
Most states have abolished the old doctrine of “interspousal tort immunity” and now
hold that you can sue your spouse both for intentional acts and ordinary negligence, such as
carelessness in the operation of an automobile resulting in your spouse’s injury or death. A
number of states, however, let you sue your spouse for intentional wrongful acts but not for
injuries resulting from his or her mere negligence. As with suits by children against their
parents, the question of whether one spouse can sue the other frequently determines who
has to foot the bills for hospital, doctor, and other expenses—you or your insurance company.
Suing a Third Person for Injuries to a Family Member
If a third party (someone who is not a member of the immediate family) either deliberately or
negligently injures a family member, the injured person can sue that person to recover damages.
If the injured person is a minor child, the parents can bring an action for medical and
other expenses they paid to have the child treated. If a member of the family is killed by a
third person’s intentional or negligent conduct, the surviving family members can sue that
third person for the death. (In some states, the estate of the deceased person must bring the
lawsuit.) The types of damages recoverable in a “wrongful death” action are governed by state
law and usually include such things as lost wages, medical and hospital costs, funeral expenses,
and loss of companionship.
If someone else injures your spouse, your spouse can sue for his or her own injuries, and if
you witnessed the accident, you can sue in many states for your own emotional or psychological
injuries, as discussed below. In many states, when your spouse has been injured by a third
person’s wrongful conduct, you are entitled to sue that third person for “loss of consortium,”
which consists of such things as comfort, companionship, society, affection, solace, and sexual
relations. When a child is seriously injured, a few states permit the parents to bring an action
for loss of “filial” consortium, but limits the recoverable damages to lost wages the child otherwise
would have earned and other monetary losses. For instance, if a boy worked on his parents’
farm, and they had to hire someone else to do the boy’s work after he was injured by the
carelessness of a third person, the parents could recover the wages paid to the hired hand who
took his place.
38 Everybody’s Guide to the Law