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House passes amendment to let courts hold spouses jointly liable for reasonable family medical and dental debts
Summary
First Substitute House Bill 4 52, as amended by Amendment 3, narrows joint liability to reasonable and necessary medical and dental expenses and other necessities, allows judicial discretion to avoid injustice, and passed the House 49-19.
The Utah House passed First Substitute House Bill 4 52 on March 2 after Representative Sandstrom offered Amendment 3 to narrow the circumstances in which a spouse may be held jointly responsible for debts incurred by the other.
Representative Sandstrom, sponsor of the amendment and the bill, said the change clarifies that a husband and wife may be jointly responsible only for "reasonable and necessary medical and dental expenses and other necessities," and that a court may, in its discretion, avoid applying joint liability if doing so would create an injustice.
Sandstrom framed the bill as a tool to address collection challenges for medical providers and dentists when the contracting spouse has no income; she noted collection fees are capped by statute and that average collection cases are modest in size. "This is just...another tool to make it so companies, doctors, dentists that do services have a reasonable way to collect the fees in this circumstance," Sandstrom said.
The House approved the first substitute as amended by a vote of 49 yes to 19 no. The bill will be transmitted to the Senate for consideration.
