Phillips v. Dodds

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Phillips v. Dodds

State: Illinois

Court: 4th District Appellate

Docket No: 4-06-0561 Rel

Case Date: 02/20/2007

Preview:NO. 4-06-0561 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FOURTH DISTRICT ALEXANDRA PHILLIPS, a Minor, by Her Mother and Next Friend, LORENA D. TRAVELL; and LORENA D. TRAVELL, Individually, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. SHAWN A. DODDS, Defendant-Appellee. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

Filed 2/20/07

Appeal from Circuit Court of Sangamon County No. 05L149 Honorable Patrick W. Kelley, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE APPLETON delivered the opinion of the court: Lorena D. Travell sued Shawn A. Dodds for the cost of medical treatment for her niece, Alexandra Phillips, whom Dodds allegedly injured in a traffic accident. Travell claimed that at

the time of the accident, she was in loco parentis to Phillips and that section 15(a)(1) of the Rights of Married Persons Act (750 ILCS 65/15(a)(1) (West 2004)), commonly called "the family expense statute," obliged her to pay the medical bills. Dodds

moved for summary judgment on the ground that Travell was neither the parent nor the legal guardian of Phillips. granted the motion, and Travell appeals. The trial court

We hold that if one

accepts a child into one's household and stands in loco parentis to the child, the family expense statute obligates one to pay for medical treatment the child receives during the relationship. Therefore we reverse the summary judgment and remand this case for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND Dodds's attorney took the depositions of Phillips and Travell. Phillips testified she was bicycling across an inter-

section in Springfield on August 9, 2004, when a truck struck her, fracturing some discs in her spine. for two days. She was in the hospital

At the time of the deposition, she was 18 and But at the time of the accident, she

living with her boyfriend.

was 17 and living with Travell, her aunt, who (Phillips believed) had obtained "legal custody" of her. Travell testified that Phillips's mother was dead and no one had come forward as the father. In 2003, Phillips was

living with a cousin in Dallas, and the cousin was preparing to move to Germany. The cousin "gave [Travell] a paper," which they

signed and notarized, enabling Travell to bring Phillips to Springfield. record.) (This "paper" does not appear to be in the

Travell thereby acquired what she considered to be

"legal custody" of Phillips, who lived with her for the next two years, until they moved to Springfield. Travell considered herself responsible for Phillips's medical bills. She testified: "After the accident[,] all the

bills came to me[,] and then they said I was responsible ***. *** [W]hen I got to the hospital[,] they had already processed

her admission paper, and they didn't ask me anything, and then the bills started coming." The medical bills in the record are - 2 -

addressed to Travell.

She had not paid any of them yet.

She

had bought pain medication, however, because Phillips "had to have that."

II. ANALYSIS A. The Purpose of the Family Expense Statute The family expense statute provides as follows: "The

expenses of the family and of the education of the children shall be chargeable upon the property of both husband and wife, or of either of them, in favor of creditors therefor, and in relation thereto[,] they may be sued jointly or separately." 65/15(a)(1) (West 2004). When construing a statute, we may consider "the reason and necessity for the statute and the evils [the legislature] intended to remedy." Roth v. Illinois Insurance Guaranty Fund, The 750 ILCS

366 Ill. App. 3d 787, 794, 852 N.E.2d 289, 294 (2006).

legislature passed the family expense statute as a section in the Husband and Wife Act of 1874 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1874, ch. 68, par. 15) (Lyman v. Harbaugh, 117 Ill. App. 3d 732, 733, 453 N.E.2d 906, 907 (1983)), copying a similar statute in Iowa (Iowa Code

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