Opinion ID: 1277449
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: degree of plaintiff's emotional distress

Text: Another crucial element of the test is the requirement that the plaintiff experience emotional distress beyond that which would be anticipated in a disinterested witness. There is disagreement among courts, however, as to whether some physical injury must result from the emotional distress. See, e.g., Leong v. Takasaki, 55 Haw. 398, 520 P.2d 758, 762 (1974) (physical injury requirement is artificial and should be used only to show degree of emotional distress); [14] Barnhill v. Davis, 300 N.W.2d at 107-08 (physical manifestations of distress required); Lejeune v. Rayne Branch Hospital, 556 So.2d 559, 570 (La.1990) (recovery should be allowed only where the emotional injury is both severe and debilitating); Culbert v. Sampson's Supermarkets Inc., 444 A.2d at 438 (proof of physical manifestations of the mental injury is no longer required); Corso v. Merrill, 406 A.2d at 304 (harm for which plaintiff seeks to recover must be susceptible to some form of objective medical determination and proved through qualified medical witnesses); Folz v. State, 110 N.M. 457, 797 P.2d 246, 259 (1990) (physical manifestation should not be the sine qua non by which to establish damages resulting from emotional trauma); Paugh v. Hanks, 6 Ohio St.3d 72, 451 N.E.2d 759, 765 (1983) (examples of serious emotional distress should include traumatically induced neurosis, psychosis, chronic depression, or phobia); Reilly v. United States, 547 A.2d 894 (R.I.1988) (plaintiff must suffer physical symptomatology to recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress). In Barnhill v. Davis, supra , the Supreme Court of Iowa discussed the importance of ensuring that a plaintiff's claim for emotional distress is serious. The court believed that every minor disturbance to a person's mental tranquillity cannot be compensated. 300 N.W.2d at 107. Instead, the court reasoned that [w]hile ... mental distress may exist without objective physical symptoms, compensable mental distress should ordinarily be accompanied with physical manifestations of the distress. 300 N.W.2d at 107-08. The Supreme Court of Ohio in Paugh v. Hanks , however, found that the physical injury rule was too inflexible, and that the standard of serious emotional distress was a more reliable safeguard. The Supreme Court of Ohio explained what it meant by using the term serious: By the term `serious,' we of course go beyond trifling mental disturbance, mere upset or hurt feelings. We believe that serious emotional distress describes emotional injury which is both severe and debilitating. Thus, serious emotional distress may be found where a reasonable person, normally constituted, would be unable to cope adequately with the mental distress engendered by the circumstances of the case. 451 N.E.2d at 765 (emphasis added). The Paugh court further stated that a rigid requirement which prevents a plaintiff from recovering from serious emotional harm except where a physical injury manifestation has ensued, completely ignores the advances made in modern medical and psychiatric science[.] 451 N.E.2d at 765. The court further pointed out that [s]erious emotional distress can be as severe and debilitating as physical injury and is no less deserving of redress. Id. Finally, the court, relying on Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, 27 Cal.3d 916, 167 Cal. Rptr. 831, 841, 616 P.2d 813, 823 (1980), gave examples of serious emotional distress such as traumatically induced neurosis, psychosis, chronic depression, or phobia. Id. We believe that the points made by the Supreme Court of Ohio in Paugh v. Hanks cannot be overlooked. Serious emotional distress which results from witnessing a closely related person critically injured or killed can be, in some cases, as debilitating and as severe as a physical injury. More importantly, serious emotional distress can be diagnosed even in the absence of any physical manifestation, and can be proven with medical and psychiatric evidence. Furthermore, any physical injury resulting from the emotional distress is further evidence of the degree of emotional distress suffered. Paugh v. Hanks, 451 N.E.2d at 765. As a final point, we believe, in determining the seriousness of the emotional distress, consideration should also be given to whether the particular plaintiff is a reasonable person, normally constituted. More specifically, we recognize that the Paugh court found that serious emotional distress may be found where a reasonable person, normally constituted, would be unable to cope adequately with the mental distress engendered by the circumstances of the case. 451 N.E.2d at 765 (citations omitted) (emphasis added); see also Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, supra . [15] A reasonable person, in this context, has been found to be an ordinarily sensitive person and not the supersensitive, `eggshell psyche' plaintiff. Salley v. Childs, 541 A.2d 1297, 1300 n. 4 (Me.1988); Gammon v. Osteopathic Hospital of Maine, Inc., 534 A.2d 1282, 1285 (Me.1987). The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine in Theriault v. Swan, 558 A.2d 369, 372 (Me.1989) [16] explained what a plaintiff must demonstrate regarding the ordinarily sensitive person standard: In order to recover for either negligent or reckless infliction of emotional distress, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the harm alleged reasonably could have been expected to befall the ordinarily sensitive person. Gammon v. Osteopathic Hospital of Maine, Inc., 534 A.2d 1282, 1285 (Me.1987). When the harm reasonably could affect only the hurt feelings of the supersensitive plaintiff-the eggshell psyche-there is no entitlement to recovery. Id. If, however, the harm reasonably could have been expected to befall the ordinarily sensitive person, the tortfeasor must take his victim as he finds her, extraordinarily sensitive or not. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 461 (1975). The reasonableness of the plaintiff's reaction to the event will normally be a jury question, as recognized by the Supreme Court of Washington in Hunsley v. Giard, 87 Wash.2d 424, 553 P.2d 1096, 1103 (1976): [17] Fear, fright or distress for the peril of another poses a troublesome problem, yet provides another safeguard against boundless liability. We decline to draw an absolute boundary around the class of persons whose peril may stimulate the mental distress. This usually will be a jury question bearing on the reasonable reaction to the event unless the court can conclude as a matter of law that the reaction was unreasonable. As we pointed out earlier in this opinion, a defendant may be held liable for negligently causing a plaintiff to experience serious emotional distress, after the plaintiff witnesses a person closely related to the plaintiff suffer a critical injury or death as a result of the defendant's negligent conduct, even though such distress did not result in physical injury, if the serious emotional distress was reasonably foreseeable. We emphasize, however, that in addition to showing that the plaintiff's emotional distress was reasonably foreseeable, and that a cause and effect relationship between the emotional distress and the accident existed, the plaintiff must also prove the seriousness of the emotional distress through the use of medical and psychiatric evidence. The plaintiff will also have to demonstrate that the harm alleged reasonably could have been expected to befall the ordinarily reasonable person. Moreover, in addition to the serious nature of the emotional distress, the plaintiff will also have to prove the other factors outlined in this opinion. Finally, our holding is limited to those cases involving a plaintiff's recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress after witnessing or contemporaneously observing the critical injury or death of a person closely related to the plaintiff.