9th Cir. Says Parents Can Sue for Loss of Companionship of Adult Children, but Still Dismisses Mother’s Claim

A federal appeals court has dismissed a mother’s claim against the City of Seattle following her son’s murder in a protest zone, despite holding that parents’ loss of companionship claims may extend to their adult children and that, in this case, the city created an “actual danger.”

In a March 1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court affirmed a district court’s ruling to dismiss a mother’s § 1983 claim against the City of Seattle after her teenage son was killed in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone in June 2020.