Opinion ID: 1822112
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Standridge's Outrage Claim

Text: Green Tree maintains that the trial court committed reversible error by denying its motions for directed verdict and j.n.o.v. on Standridge's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, or outrage. In his complaint, Standridge alleged that Green Tree's actions in ordering him to leave his mobile home; threatening to destroy his credit; threatening to cause him to lose his job; and filing a report on the repossession with a credit bureau, thereby damaging his credit rating, were extreme, unconscionable, and outrageous, and caused him to suffer severe emotional distress. The jury heard testimony by Standridge and other witnesses concerning the embarrassment and other distress suffered by Standridge and returned a verdict on the outrage claim of $275,000. The verdict of a jury is presumed to be correct and will not be reversed unless, after allowing all reasonable presumptions of its correctness, the preponderance of the evidence against the verdict is so decided as to clearly convince this Court that it is wrong and unjust. Shelby County v. Oldham, 264 Ala. 626, 89 So.2d 106, 107 (1956). However, the burden on a plaintiff in a case such as this is a heavy one, Surrency v. Harbison, 489 So.2d 1097, 1105 (Ala.1986), and this Court cannot affirm a verdict if the plaintiff has failed to prove all of the elements of his claim. This Court set out the elements of the tort of outrage in American Road Service Co. v. Inmon, 394 So.2d 361 (Ala.1981). For a plaintiff to recover under that tort, he must demonstrate that the defendant's conduct (1) was intentional or reckless; (2) was extreme and outrageous; and (3) caused emotional distress so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it. Inmon, supra, at 365. In order to support a cause of action for the tort of outrage, the conduct complained of must be so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized society. McIsaac v. WZEW-FM Corp., 495 So.2d 649, 651 (Ala. 1986). The cases in which this Court has held that the evidence presented a jury question on the tort of outrage have involved conduct of a more egregious nature than that present in the instant case. This Court, in a recently released opinion, Busby v. Truswal Systems Corp., 551 So.2d 322 (Ala. 1989), remarked, obiter dictum, that evidence of a plant supervisor's repeated sexual advances, lewd remarks, and patently offensive behavior towards his female employees would be sufficient to present a question for the jury. [5] 551 So.2d at 324. In Whitt v. Hulsey, 519 So.2d 901 (Ala. 1987), the reckless desecration of a family cemetery by an adjacent landowner was held to be sufficiently outrageous to present a jury question and to support an award of punitive damages. 519 So.2d at 906. In Levite Undertakers Co. v. Griggs, 495 So.2d 63 (Ala.1986), an undertaker's misrepresentation of the condition of the remains of the plaintiff's husband, coupled with the wrongful retention of those remains in an attempt to force payment of funeral expenses, justified an award of punitive damages. 495 So.2d at 64-65. In National Security Fire & Casualty Co. v. Bowen, 447 So.2d 133 (Ala.1983), the use of threats and assaultive behavior by agents of the defendant, in an attempt to force the plaintiff to drop a claim against the defendant, was held to constitute outrageous conduct. 447 So.2d at 141. Finally, in Cates v. Taylor, 428 So.2d 637 (Ala.1983), the defendants, 30 minutes before a planned burial, withdrew permission for the plaintiffs to use a cemetery plot to bury their father. That conduct supported a cause of action for the tort of outrage. 428 So.2d at 640. The conduct complained of by Standridge can be divided into three categories: (1) the threatening, abusive, and insulting language used by Robert Franklin, Green Tree's employee, during his final conversation with Standridge, (2) the wrongful threat of repossession and subsequent sale of his mobile home, and (3) Green Tree's filing of an adverse report with a credit bureau and the resulting embarrassment and credit problems suffered by Standridge, including the payment of increased interest rates to secure a later loan. Although this Court can not condone oppressive collection practices like those used by Green Tree, they do not rise to the level of extreme behavior contemplated by this Court when it recognized the tort of outrage. In addition, Standridge failed to demonstrate that Green Tree's actions caused him to suffer emotional distress of a degree more severe than a reasonable person could be expected to endure. Inmon, supra, at 365. Because Standridge failed to meet his burden of proof, the trial court's denial of Green Tree's motion for j.n.o.v. on the outrage claim was not proper. Therefore, that portion of the judgment is reversed, and the trial court is instructed to enter a judgment in Green Tree's favor on that claim.