Supreme Court expands window for parents filing loss of consortium claims

Dale Emch

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Toledo parents now have more time in which to file loss of consortium lawsuits based on the negligence or medical malpractice claims of their children.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled today that because the parent's claim for the loss of companionship and society of a child is inseparable from the claim a child might advance for an injury, the parent enjoys the same expanded statute of limitations as the child.

Generally, children have until their 18th birthday, plus the normal statute of limitations to file a lawsuit. So, for example, a child injured in a car accident has until he's 20 to file suit. Now parents have the same window in which to file a loss of companionship or services claim.

In the case before the Supreme Court, the defense argued that because the parents' claim was separate from the child's medical malpractice claim, the parents needed to file within the normal statute of limitations. The Court said taking that approach would require separate litigation of similar claims and would be a waste of judicial economy. The Court wrote:

We hold that because a parent's claim for loss of consortium against a third party for injuries to the parent's minor child is an interest that is "joint and inseparable" from the child's own claim for purposes of R.C. 2305.16, the parent's claim may be tolled during the child's disability.