loss of society and companionship

The petitioners were fourteen same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners were deceased. They lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. Those states defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman under their constitutions and statutes. The petitioners filed suits in federal district courts in their home states. They sought marriage licenses or recognition of marriages lawfully performed elsewhere. James Obergefell and John Arthur traveled from Ohio to Maryland to marry aboard a medical transport plane because Arthur suffered from ALS; Obergefell later sought to be listed as surviving spouse on Arthur's death certificate. April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, Michigan nurses, adopted three children but could not both serve as legal parents under state adoption rules. Army Reserve Sergeant Ijpe DeKoe and Thomas Kostura married in New York before DeKoe's deployment to Afghanistan and later settled in Tennessee. Each district court ruled in the petitioners' favor. The respondents appealed. The Sixth Circuit consolidated the cases and reversed the district court judgments. The petitioners sought certiorari, which the Supreme Court granted. Same-sex couples had begun establishing families after substantial cultural and political developments in the late twentieth century. Earlier litigation had addressed the legal status of gays and lesbians, including challenges that reached the Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas.

Osborne Computer Corporation was founded in 1980 by entrepreneur Adam Osborne and began manufacturing the Osborne I portable personal computer for the mass market, with shipments starting in 1981. By fall 1982, sales of the company's sole product had reached $10 million per month, making the company one of the fastest growing enterprises in the history of American business. In 1981 and again in 1982, the company retained Arthur Young & Company to audit its financial statements and issue audit reports. Arthur Young issued unqualified audit opinions on the company's 1981 and 1982 financial statements. The 1982 opinion was issued on February 11, 1983, appeared on Arthur Young's letterhead addressed to the company, and 100 copies of the professionally printed opinion were personally delivered to the company. The 1982 financial statements reported a modest net operating profit of $69,000 on sales of more than $68 million. In late 1982 the company postponed a planned initial public offering and instead issued warrants to investors in exchange for bridge financing loans or letters of credit. Plaintiffs, a group that included individuals as well as pension and venture capital funds, invested in the company in early 1983; one plaintiff, Robert Bily, purchased 37,500 shares of stock from Adam Osborne for $1.5 million. With one exception, plaintiffs testified that they made their investments in reliance on Arthur Young's unqualified 1982 audit opinion. After the warrant transaction closed on April 8, 1983, sales declined sharply because of manufacturing problems with the company's new Executive model computer, the public offering never occurred, and the company filed for bankruptcy on September 13, 1983, causing plaintiffs to lose their investments. Plaintiffs brought separate lawsuits against Arthur Young in Santa Clara County Superior Court that were consolidated for trial. Plaintiffs' expert witness identified more than 40 deficiencies in the 1982 audit amounting to gross professional negligence, including an understatement of liabilities by approximately $3 million that turned the reported $69,000 profit into a loss of more than $3 million, and testified that Arthur Young had discovered but failed to disclose material weaknesses in the company's internal accounting controls. After a 13-week trial the jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs on the professional negligence claim and awarded approximately $4.3 million in compensatory damages, but found for Arthur Young on the fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims. The trial court granted Arthur Young's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the negligence claim. The Court of Appeal reversed the judgment in favor of Arthur Young. The Supreme Court of California granted review.

Interactive Data Corporation hired John Foley in June 1976 as an assistant product manager at a starting salary of $18,500. As a condition of employment Foley signed a confidential and proprietary information agreement. The company's president told Foley that if he performed his job well he would have a long and rewarding employment with the firm. Over the next six years and nine months Foley received steady salary increases, promotions, bonuses, awards, and superior performance evaluations, rising to branch manager of the Los Angeles office with an annual salary of $56,164 plus a merit bonus. In January 1983 Foley learned that his new supervisor, Robert Kuhne, was under investigation by the FBI for embezzlement from his former employer, Bank of America. Foley reported the information to Vice President Richard Earnest because he was worried about working for Kuhne in a supervisory position. Earnest told Foley not to discuss rumors and to forget what he had heard. In early March 1983 Kuhne informed Foley that the company had decided to replace him for performance reasons and offered a transfer to another division. Foley was later told he could continue as branch manager if he agreed to a performance plan, but when Kuhne met with him the next day Kuhne instead gave Foley the choice of resigning or being fired. Foley was discharged on March 13, 1983. Foley filed suit against Interactive Data Corporation alleging three causes of action: tortious discharge in violation of public policy, breach of an implied-in-fact contract to terminate only for good cause, and tortious breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The superior court sustained the company's demurrer without leave to amend and dismissed the action. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. The Supreme Court granted review.

The appellant’s husband was employed by appellee Argonne Co., Inc. While in the course of that employment he sustained severe and permanent injuries to his body and in particular in and about his abdomen. As a direct consequence of those injuries the appellant was deprived of her husband’s aid, assistance, and enjoyment, specifically including sexual relations. The husband thereafter received compensation for his injuries pursuant to the provisions of the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, the workmen’s compensation statute for the District of Columbia. Subsequently the wife filed the present action against the employer. The defendant moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction and that the complaint failed to state a cause of action. The motion was granted and judgment was entered for the appellee. The wife appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which heard the case on the record of the proceedings below.