Court Opinion

ID: 9623896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:45:42.137133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:36.348963
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Justice,
dissenting.
I would vacate certiorari as improvidently granted. This court’s rules provide that certiorari will not be granted to review the sufficiency of the evidence. Ga. Sup. Ct. R. 30. The majority opinion does nothing more than review the evidence that both the trial court and Court of Appeals found insufficient to support Yarbray’s claims.
Since the majority has chosen to ignore our rules and review the sufficiency of the evidence, I dissent to the holding that Yarbray’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress survives summary judgment. The only conduct that could be labeled egregious is the company attorney’s statement at a pretrial interview in another lawsuit that he hoped her trial testimony would not affect her job. Yet, as I understand the majority opinion, this statement is not part of Yarbray’s claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Instead, the court finds that Yarbray’s allegation that Southern Bell retaliated against her for testifying, a threat implied in its attorney’s statement, meets “the threshold which reasonable persons would consider outrageous and extreme conduct.”
I find that Yarbray does not allege company conduct that rises to the level of outrageous conduct. After Yarbray filed her lawsuit alleging age discrimination and misrepresented facts when testifying concerning the promotion of Southern Bell managers in a similar lawsuit, the company transferred her to a new division where her supervisor was critical. Her salary and benefits remained the same. Even assuming the company had an improper motive, her transfer to an equal-paying job in a less hospitable office does not “go beyond all possible bounds of decency.” See Restatement 2d of Torts, § 46 (1), comment d. Because Yarbray has not met the stringent standard for sustaining a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, I agree with the Court of Appeals and would affirm on all issues.
*708Ford & Haley, James L. Ford, for appellant.
Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, John F. Wymer III, Deborah A. Sudbury, for appellee.