Opinion ID: 178734
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Count IIIIntentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

Text: The district court also granted summary judgment in favor of the Nurses, the County, and the Corrections Officers on Plaintiff's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. This claim requires a plaintiff to show: (1) extreme and outrageous conduct; (2) intent or recklessness; (3) causation; and (4) severe emotional distress. Vredevelt v. GEO Group, Inc., 145 Fed.Appx. 122, 135 (6th Cir.2005). Such conduct must be so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. Graham v. Ford, 237 Mich.App. 670, 604 N.W.2d 713, 716 (1999). The court in Graham further explained this conduct as follows: It is not enough that the defendant has acted with an intent that is tortious or even criminal, or that he has intended to inflict emotional distress, or even that his conduct has been characterized by malice, or a degree of aggravation that would entitle the plaintiff to punitive damages for another tort. Roberts v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 422 Mich. 594, 602-603, 374 N.W.2d 905 (1985), quoting Restatement Torts, 2d, § 46, comment d, pp. 72-73. In reviewing a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, we must determine whether the defendant's conduct is sufficiently unreasonable as to be regarded as extreme and outrageous. Doe, supra at 92, 536 N.W.2d 824. The test is whether the recitation of the facts to an average member of the community would arouse his resentment against the actor, and lead him to exclaim, `Outrageous!' Roberts, supra at 603, 374 N.W.2d 905. Id. According to the district court, there may have been deficiencies in the medical care provided, but Defendants' conduct did not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct, which demands more than mere neglect or deficiency. This court agrees. For the reasons articulated above, Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate such a high level of wrongful conduct with regard to Jones's medical care on the part of the Corrections Officers, Nurse Malenko, or the County. We also conclude that the purported wrongful conduct of Nurses Mastee and Yonker, even if established, does not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct necessary to support this claim. Plaintiff presented an affidavit indicating that these two nurses received medical kites from Jones that claimed he was seriously ill, and that these nurses subsequently ignored those kites for several months, concluding instead that Jones was faking it. Although this conduct could reasonably be construed as deliberately indifferent to Jones's serious medical needs, it does not establish that they acted intentionally or in a manner that is sufficiently extreme or outrageous to satisfy this claim. The recitation of these facts alone would not arouse the resentment of a reasonable juror against these nurses such that he would exclaim, outrageous! See Graham, 604 N.W.2d at 716. Therefore, we conclude that the district court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of all Defendants on this state-law claim was proper.