1. A loss of the benefits that one spouse is entitled to receive from the other, including companionship, cooperation, aid, affection, and sexual relations. • Loss of consortium can be recoverable as damages from a tortfeasor in a personal-injury or wrongful-death action. Originally, only the husband could sue for loss of consortium. But in 1950, nearly a century after the enactment of the married women’s property acts, a wife’s action for negligent impairment of consortium was first recognized. Hitaffer v. Argonne Co., 183 F.2d 811 (D.C. Cir. 1950). Today 48 states and the District of Columbia recognize both a husband’s and a wife’s right to sue for loss of consortium (Utah and Virginia do not). [Cases: Husband and Wife 209(3, 4).]
2. A similar loss of benefits that one is entitled to receive from a parent or child. See CONSORTIUM.
