Gill v. Celotex Corp.

565 A.2d 21, 1989 Del. Super. LEXIS 379
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedAugust 16, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 565 A.2d 21 (Gill v. Celotex Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gill v. Celotex Corp., 565 A.2d 21, 1989 Del. Super. LEXIS 379 (Del. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

TAYLOR, Judge.

Defendant Celotex Corporation [Celotex] has moved for partial summary judgment with respect to the claim of Patricia A. Gill [Mrs. Gill], widow, of John T. Gill, for loss of consortium resulting from the asbestos-related disease which her husband, John T. Gill, allegedly suffered from, and her claim for mental anguish resulting from the death of Mr. Gill as a result of the alleged asbestos-related disease.

I.

With respect to the loss of consortium claim, Celotex points out that Mr. and Mrs. Gill were married in September of 1986. Mr. Gill brought this suit in March, 1985 based upon a diagnosis in 1983 that he was suffering from asbestosis.

Celotex cites 2 Minzer, et al., Damages in Tort Actions, § 11.16 (1986), and Prosser, The Law of Torts, §§ 125 and 932 (5th ed. 1984) for the proposition that a cause of action for loss of consortium exists only where the marital relationship existed at the time of the injury. It also cites Jones v. Elliott, Del.Supr., 551 A.2d 62 (1988); and Gillespie-Linton v. Miles, Md.Sp.Ct. App., 473 A.2d 947 (1984) for the same proposition.

Mrs. Gill contends that the principle which Celotex’s authorities stand for is not applicable to a disease which becomes progressively worse after the marriage occurs. In support of this contention, she relies on language of Jones, “that, as a result of the physical injury, the other spouse was deprived of some benefit which formerly existed in the marriage....” Jones, 551 A.2d at 64. She attempts to distinguish an asbestos-related disease, which develops and progresses over a period of years from an injury which might be incurred in an automobile accident which is a single impact injury. Thus, she contends that if a non-injured spouse is to be barred from a consortium claim, the bar should be limited to the injured spouse’s disability at the time of marriage and the non-injured spouse should be entitled to recover for any worsening of the injured spouse’s condition which occurs after the marriage.

This Court and the Delaware Supreme Court have treated asbestos-related diseases as an “injury sustained” as that phrase is used in the applicable statute of limitations, 10 Del. C. § 8119. Sheppard v. A.C. & S. Co., Inc., Del.Super., 498 A.2d 1126 (1985), aff'd. Keene Corporation v. [23]*23Sheppard, Del.Supr., 503 A.2d 192 (1986). Further, because of the fact that those diseases often do not become manifest for a period of years after exposure to asbestos, the injury is held to be inherently unknowable until the disease becomes known to the claimant. Stagg v. Bendix Corp., Del.Super., 472 A.2d 40 (1984), aff'd., Del.Supr., 486 A.2d 1150 (1984).

This Court and the Delaware Supreme Court have held that exposure to asbestos can result in a number of different and distinct diseases. Sheppard v. A.C. & S. Co., Inc., supra. For purposes of this decision, it is assumed that the asbestosis which Mr. Gill alleged in his 1985 complaint is the only disease from which he suffered up to the time of his death. Therefore, he did not contract a disease after his marriage to Mrs. Gill.

The elemental consideration in determining loss of consortium in the usual situation where the marital relationship existed both before and after the injury is the comparison of the marital relationship before the injury with that relationship after the injury where the only cause of the change is attributable to the injury. Where the marriage did not occur until after the injury, only the post-injury relationship is considered. Since the search is to determine the deterioration to the relationship resulting from changes occurring after the relationship began, two alternate considerations could be applied. One is the actual physical manifestation of the spouse’s disease as of the marriage. The other is the foreseeable consequences of the spouse’s pre-marital disease which would be likely to develop after the marriage.

In general, a right of action resulting from tortious conduct encompasses all of the reasonably foreseeable consequences of the tort. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 910 (1979). Under that principle, the tortfeasor is liable for the foreseeable deterioration of health which follows from the tortious disease. By the same reasoning, when the non-injured spouse enters into the marital relationship with the injured spouse after discovery of the disease, the non-injured spouse assumes the consequences of the disease including the foreseeable deterioration resulting from that disease. The non-injured spouse does not, of course, assume consequences of any other disease which might also be attributable to asbestos but which had not then become manifest. Cf. Sheppard v. A.C. & S. Co., Inc., supra. Nor does it prevent or limit a death claim by the non-injured spouse. 10 Del.C. § 3724.

Liability based on tort stems from tortious conduct resulting in injury. The determinant may be based on conditions at the time of the injury or at the time of manifestation of injury. In this case, both the tortious conduct and the injury occurred before the marriage. Only the extension of the injury occurred after the marriage. If the extension was a foreseeable consequence of the same injury, it is not a new injury. Hence, it is not consortium which has been lost as a result of an injury occurring after the marriage.

Based on the foregoing considerations, Mrs. Gill is not entitled to recover for deterioration of Mr. Gill’s health resulting from asbestosis, and partial summary judgment is GRANTED in favor of Celotex on that issue.

II.

Celotex also contends that Mrs. Gill is not entitled to recover for mental anguish resulting from the death of Mr. Gill. Celo-tex relies on 10 Del.C. § 3724(d)(5), which is a part of a revised Wrongful Death Act which became effective December 1, 1982. 63 Del.Laws 256 (1982).

Section 3724(a) provides:

(a) An action under this subchapter shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child of the deceased person.

Section 3724(d) enumerates various elements which may be considered in determining the amount of damages. Item (5) of Section 3724(d) delineates the element of mental anguish as follows:

(5) Mental anguish resulting from such death to the surviving spouse and next of kin of such deceased person. However, [24]*24when mental anguish is claimed as a measure of damages under this subchap-ter, such mental anguish will be applicable only to the surviving spouse, children, father and mother, (if there is no surviving spouse or children) or person standing in loco parentis to the deceased and persons to whom the deceased stood in loco parentis at the time of the injury which caused the death of the deceased.

Celotex extracts from that language the words “at the time of the injury which caused the death of the deceased”, and argues that that language bars Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
565 A.2d 21, 1989 Del. Super. LEXIS 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gill-v-celotex-corp-delsuperct-1989.