Opinion ID: 1277718
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Nature of Conduct

Text: [3-5] Whether conduct is extreme and outrageous is judged on an objective standard based on all the facts and circumstances of the particular case. Heitzman v. Thompson, 270 Neb. 600, 705 N.W.2d 426 (2005); Brandon, supra . The facts must be such that when heard, an average member of the community would resent the actor and exclaim 'Outrageous!' Heitzman, 270 Neb. at 605, 705 N.W.2d at 431. Accord Restatement (Second) of Torts § 46, comment d. (1965). Mere insults, indignities, threats, annoyances, petty oppressions, or other trivialities that result from living in society do not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct. Heitzman, supra ; Brandon, supra . In determining whether certain conduct is extreme and outrageous, the relationship between the parties and the susceptibility of the plaintiff to emotional distress are important factors to consider. Brandon, supra . Conduct which might otherwise be considered merely rude or abusive may be deemed outrageous when the defendant knows that the plaintiff is particularly susceptible to emotional distress. Id. In Brandon v. County of Richardson, 261 Neb. 636, 624 N.W.2d 604 (2001), we determined as a matter of law that a sheriff's use of crude and dehumanizing language when interviewing the victim of a sexual assault constituted actionable extreme and outrageous conduct. Another example of conduct held to be actionable was the refusal of a funeral home to release a body until the widow paid a $490 embalming fee. Dale v. Thomas Funeral Home, 237 Neb. 528, 466 N.W.2d 805 (1991). In Nichols, supra, we also found actionable conduct when a person who had left a seriously injured passenger to die after a motor vehicle accident called the mother of the passenger and reported that her daughter had stolen the vehicle. In Foreman v. AS Mid-America, 255 Neb. 323, 586 N.W.2d 290 (1998), we held that name-calling and other harassment of nonunion replacement workers did not constitute actionable extreme and outrageous conduct. In Hassing v. Wortman, 214 Neb. 154, 157, 333 N.W.2d 765, 767 (1983), we stated that it was doubtful that the defendant's harassment of his former spouse concerning her current spouse amounted to extreme and outrageous conduct, noting that he did not threaten her safety; however, the case was decided on other grounds. Considered in the light most favorable to Roth, as our standard of review requires, the evidence demonstrates that prior to the conduct in question, Wiese had sexually abused Roth on numerous occasions when she was a child and threatened her in order to secure her silence concerning the abuse. Then, 30 years later, he contacted her by telephone at her home and angrily berated her for reporting the abuse, repeating the same threats he had made previously. Subsequently, he sent her letters begging for forgiveness and then left a message on her answering machine essentially comparing her to a prostitute. In light of the evidence that Roth was the victim of past sexual abuse perpetrated by Wiese and thus particularly susceptible to emotional distress, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support a finding that Wiese's conduct in 2002 was so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and is to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community. See Brandon, 261 Neb. at 656, 624 N.W.2d at 620-21.