Opinion ID: 2165135
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Trial Court's Legal Standard.

Text: The trial judge took the position that the key question, in relation to Ms. Drejza's vulnerability, was whether she was more susceptible to emotional distress than other rape victims or crime victims, rather than whether she was more susceptible than a member of the public at large. The judge cited no authority for this proposition, and we know of none. Comment (f) to § 46 of the RESTATEMENT, quoted at page 13, supra, speaks in terms of peculiar susceptibility to emotional distress by reason of some physical or mental condition or peculiarity. Being a rape victim, standing alone, surely constitutes such a physical or mental condition. An impartial trier of fact could reasonably find that any woman who has been raped a short time earlier is thereby rendered peculiarly susceptible to emotional injury alone, without reference to the condition of any other rape victim or crime victim. Our disagreement with the trial judge is illustrated by reference to cases involving another class of peculiarly susceptible individuals, namely, employees. [T]he relationship between employer and employee imposes more demanding obligations to refrain from inflicting mental or emotional affronts than apply between strangers.  Hall v. May Dept. Stores Co., 292 Or. 131, 637 P.2d 126, 131 (1981) (emphasis added); see also Alcorn v. Anbro Eng'g, Inc., 2 Cal.3d 493, 86 Cal. Rptr. 88, 90, 468 P.2d 216, 218 n. 2 (1970). The italicized words are important; an employee is not required to show that he or she is more susceptible to emotional injury than other employees. Rather, the appropriate comparison is with a non-employee, a stranger. The difference between an employee and a non-employee is surely dwarfed, for purposes of our inquiry, by the difference between someone who has just been raped and someone who has not. Accordingly, we are compelled to reject the trial judge's susceptibility standard as articulated in her opinion.