Old Dominion Freight Line v. Martin, 58780

• Decision Date: 04 March 1980
• Docket Number: No. 58780,58780
• Citation: 264 S.E.2d 585,153 Ga.App. 135
• Parties: OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE et al. v. MARTIN.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 585

264 S.E.2d 585

153 Ga.App. 135

OLD DOMINION FREIGHT LINE et al. v. MARTIN.

No. 58780.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Argued Nov. 5, 1979.

Decided Jan. 22, 1980.

Certiorari Denied March 4, 1980.

Gould B. Hagler, David H. Hanks, Augusta, for appellants.

Thomas F. Allgood, T. Allen Childs, Jr., Robert L. Allgood, Augusta, for appellee.

CARLEY, Judge.

Martin sued Old Dominion, its employee driver and its insurer for medical expenses and loss of consortium of his wife due to extensive disabling and permanent injuries received by her as a result of the negligence of Old Dominion's driver. The trial court charged the jury that under Georgia law the husband has the right to recover medical expenses for the wife because of his obligation to support her, and that in the event the wife's injuries are shown to be of a permanent nature it would be proper to consider the sole life expectancy of the wife since the husband's duty to provide would then extend beyond his own life expectancy. The court further charged that the mortality tables which were in evidence could be considered by the jury to determine the life expectancy of both the husband and the wife and that the husband's right to recover for loss of consortium was limited to the joint lives of the parties. The defendants appeal from a $300,000 verdict in Martin's favor. The question presented is whether the trial court erred in allowing the jury to consider the sole life expectancy of the wife in determining the amount to be recovered for medical expenses.

The importance of this issue, which appears to be of first impression, is that under Georgia law the wife cannot sue for her own medical expenses because this right is vested solely in the husband. "Under the common law and under the statutory law of this State, a husband is bound to support and maintain his wife and furnish her the necessities of life (Code § 53-510), and this includes medical and hospital expenses and the expenses of burial. (Cits.) In the event of injury to the wife, the right to recover the expenses incurred for medical, hospital and funeral bills is not in her but in the husband, unless there are special circumstances, as where the wife contracts to be personally bound. (Cits.)" Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Floyd, 214 Ga. 232, 238-39(3), 104 S.E.2d 208, 214 (1958); Thomas v. Allstate Ins. Co., 133 Ga.App. 193, 195(2), 210 S.E.2d 361 (1974). This is the rule in the vast majority of all other jurisdictions as well. See generally, Annot., 21 A.L.R.3d 1113 (1968).

However, at the time of trial of this case Mrs. Martin was 36 and Mr. Martin was 57. The appellants insist that since the husband's obligation to support his wife terminates at his death, allowing the jury to consider the wife's life expectancy, which extended past his, permitted an award of damages that was greater...