Opinion ID: 2178388
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Primarily Personal Contracts Allow the Award of Emotional Distress Contract Damages

Text: Where the central interest infringed by the breach is primarily personal rather than pecuniary in nature, however, jurists and scholars [6] have been more hesitant to find emotional distress damages to be violative of the Hadley rule. In such instances, it should have been evident to the defaulting promisor at the time of contract formation that breach would likely occasion mental distress for reasons that do not stem from the pecuniary loss alone. This principle was succinctly stated by TALBOT SMITH, J., in Stewart, supra, 471-472, quoting Lamm v Shingleton, 231 NC 10, 14-15; 55 SE2d 810, 813 (1949): `Where the contract is personal in nature and the contractual duty or obligation is so coupled with matters of mental concern or solicitude, or with the sensibilities of the party to whom the duty is owed, that a breach of that duty will necessarily or reasonably result in mental anguish or suffering, and it should be known to the parties from the nature of the contract that such suffering will result from its breach, compensatory damages therefor may be recovered. 15 Am Jur, Damages, ง 182, p 600; McCormick on Damages, p 592; Warner v Benham, 126 Wash 393; 218 P 260; 34 ALR 1358 [1923]. In such case the party sought to be charged is presumed to have contracted with reference to the payment of damages of that character in the event such damages should accrue on account of his breach of the contract. Renihan v Wright, 125 Ind 536; 25 NE 822; 9 LRA 514 [1890]; McCormick on Damages, p 595.' Illustrative of such personal contracts are contracts to marry, [7] contracts between carriers and passengers, [8] contracts of innkeepers and guests, [9] contracts for the disposition of dead bodies, [10] contracts for the delivery of death messages, [11] contracts for public entertainment or amusement, [12] and contracts to provide care, room and board. [13] As stated by Arthur Linton Corbin, an element common to all of these contract damages actions is that they involve situations in which personal feelings are most deeply involved and in which mental suffering is likely to be most poignant, [14] despite their literal commercial nature.