Also known as: family immunity · familial immunity · familial immunities · intrafamily immunity · interspousal immunity · parental immunity
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An immunity doctrine shielding one family member from tort liability to another solely by reason of their relationship. The doctrine historically barred suits between spouses or between parents and unemancipated children to preserve family harmony and parental autonomy.
Fernando Farrell directed his twelve-year-old daughter to operate an old tractor without a roll bar along a steep drainage ditch on the family farm. The tractor overturned and injured the child. When the child sued Fernando for negligence, the court considered whether the parent-child relationship alone barred the action.
Flora Ford mopped a narrow aisle in the family restaurant without posting warnings and then directed her spouse to carry a heavy tray of hot dishes down the same aisle. The spouse slipped, suffered burns, and sued Flora for negligence. The court evaluated whether their marriage by itself prevented the claim from proceeding.
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The supplied authority reaffirms parental immunity for ordinary negligence arising from the exercise of parental authority or supervision. An unemancipated minor therefore remains barred from suing a parent on that basis in jurisdictions following the doctrine.
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The supplied authority addresses only parental immunity. No authority is provided for interspousal immunity, so the marital relationship's effect on such a claim cannot be determined from the given source.
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Conduct that would not be tortious apart from the relationship or that is privileged because of the familial context may still avoid liability. The repudiation of immunity removes only the automatic bar based on status.
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…for loss of consortium ( Rodriguez v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., supra, 12 Cal.3d at pp. 389-404); and abrogated the rule of interspousal immunity for negligent torts. ( Klein v. Klein (1962) 58 Cal.2d 692, 697-699 [26 Cal. Rptr. 102, 376 P.2d 70].) Every one of these landmark decisions required a difficult choice among competing…