By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that children in Connecticut have the right to sue for the loss of love and affection when a parent is seriously injured. The ruling comes in the case of a West Haven family whose father, Jose Campos, died three days after being struck by a car while riding a bicycle in September 2008. His family won about $1.7 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against the car’s driver. Campos’ wife was awarded an additional $580,000 for the loss of love and affection _ known as spousal consortium. But lower courts, citing a 1998 Supreme Court case, threw out a claim filed on behalf of Campos’ three minor children seeking more money for the loss of parental consortium. The state’s highest court overturned that precedent on Monday, finding in part that the “unique emotional attachment” and “critically important services” that parents provide are reasons to recognize such lawsuits. “The inability of a parent who has suffered a physical or mental injury to provide the `love, care, companionship and guidance’ to minor children that he or she otherwise would have provided is an eminently foreseeable and uniquely […]
By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that children in Connecticut have the right to sue for the loss of love and affection when a parent is seriously injured. The ruling comes in the case of a West Haven family whose father, Jose Campos, died three days after being struck by a car while riding a bicycle in September 2008. His family won about $1.7 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against the car’s driver. Campos’ wife was awarded an additional $580,000 for the loss of love and affection _ known as spousal consortium. But lower courts, citing a 1998 Supreme Court case, threw out a claim filed on behalf of Campos’ three minor children seeking more money for the loss of parental consortium. The state’s highest court overturned that precedent on Monday, finding in part that the “unique emotional attachment” and “critically important services” that parents provide are reasons to recognize such lawsuits. “The inability of a parent who has suffered a physical or mental injury to provide the `love, care, companionship and guidance’ to minor children that he or she otherwise would have provided is an eminently foreseeable and uniquely […]