consortium

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Conjugal fellowship of husband and wife, and the right of each to the company, society, co-operation, affection, and aid of the other in every conjugal relation. Roseberry v. Starkovich, 73 N.M. 211, 387 P.2d 321, 322.

Loss of "consortium" consists of several elements, encompassing not only material services but such intangibles as society, guidance, companionship, and sexual relations. Countryman v. Winnebago County, 2 Dist, 135 Ill.App.3d 384, 90 111. Dec. 344, 347, 481 N.E.2d 1255, 1258.

Damages for loss of consortium are commonly sought in wrongful death actions, or when spouse has been seriously injured through negligence of another, or by spouse against third person alleging that he or she has caused breaking-up of marriage. Cause of action for "consortium" occasioned by injury to marriage partner, is a separate cause of action belonging to the spouse of the injured married partner and though derivative in the sense of being occasioned by injury to spouse, is a direct injury to the spouse who has lost the consortium. Peeples v. Sargent, 77 Wis.2d 612, 253 N.W.2d 459, 471.

See also alienation of affections.

In the civil law, a union of fortunes; a lawful Roman marriage. The joining of several persons as parties to one action. In old English law, the term signified company or society, and in the language of pleading, as in the phrase per quod consortium amisit, it has substantially the same meaning, viz., the companionship or society of a wife. 3 Bl.Comm. 140