Court Opinion

ID: 9534179
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:37:23.256898+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:29.042746
License: Public Domain

EAGLESON, J.
I concur in the judgment. I do so because the complaint alleges facts to establish a psychotherapist/patient relationship between the plaintiff mothers and the defendants. That relationship gives rise to a duty on the part of defendants to refrain from conduct that foreseeably may aggravate the condition for which treatment was sought or inhibit the therapist’s ability to successfully treat the patient. Because it is foreseeable that sexual misconduct with another family member who is also under treatment by the therapist will do so, that misconduct is professional malpractice. (Richard H. v. Larry D. (1988) 198 Cal.App.3d 591, 596 [243 Cal.Rptr. 807]; Mazza v. Huffaker (1983) 61 N.C.App. 170 [300 S.E.2d 833, 837-838]; Horak v. Biris (1985) 130 Ill.App.3d 140 [474 N.E.2d 13, 58 A.L.R.4th 965].)
I do not, however, agree that a “direct victim” theory of liability or Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1980) 27 Cal.3d 916 [167 Cal.Rptr. 831, 616 P.2d 813, 16 A.L.R.4th 518], has any relevance to the plaintiffs’ right to recover. The conclusion of the trial court that the mothers had not stated a cause of action under Molien was correct. The court erred only in failing to recognize that the allegations of the complaint did state a cause of action for professional malpractice.
As the majority recognize, Molien did not establish an independent cause of action for infliction of serious emotional distress. Since there was no breach of a professional relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, the justification for permitting recovery in that case was the defendant’s assumption of a duty to the plaintiff when he directed that his diagnosis of a sexually transmitted disease be communicated to plaintiff.
Although purporting to deny the existence of a cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress, by suggesting that Molien is authority for, or somehow relevant to, permitting recovery here, the majority in fact perpetuate the mistaken view that such a cause of action may exist. (See, e.g., Accounts Adjustment Bureau v. Cooperman (1984) 158 Cal.App.3d 844, 848 [204 Cal.Rptr. 881]; Fischer, Tort Law: Expanding the Scope of Recovery Without Loss of Jury Control (1983) 11 Hofstra L.Rev. 937, 951; Schwartz, Economic Loss in American Tort Law: The Examples of J’Aire *600and of Products Liability (1986) 23 San Diego L.Rev. 37, 39, fn. 13; Comment, Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress: New Horizons After Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1982) 13 Pacific L.J. 179, 180; Comment, Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress as an Independent Cause of Action in California: Do Defendants Face Unlimited Liability? (1982) 22 Santa Clara L.Rev. 181; Prosser and Keeton on Torts (5th ed. 1984) pp. 364-365.)
The majority’s reliance on Molien in this case, and its suggestion that permitting recovery is somehow novel although not a “dramatic step” are inexplicable. The explanation in Molien that the plaintiff was a “direct victim” did no more than distinguish and explain why the Molien plaintiff had not stated a cause of action as a “bystander” victim whose emotional distress injury was caused by observation of an injury to another. (Dillon v. Legg (1968) 68 Cal.2d 728 [69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912, 29 A.L.R.3d 1316].) Identification of the plaintiff as a “direct victim” of the defendant’s negligence did not, however, explain the source of the duty which obligated the defendant for emotional distress damages—recovery which is normally permitted only as an item of “parasitic” damages when the defendant is liable for another injury. The majority’s explanation here that the therapist’s “tortious conduct” was directed at both the children and their mothers suffers from the same defect. It does not identify any tort other than negligence that supports the recovery of damages for emotional distress, and thus supports negligent infliction of emotional distress as an independent cause of action.
Neither reliance on, nor analogy to, Molien is appropriate in this case. Each of the mothers stated a cause of action for professional malpractice. When a professional relationship involves counseling or therapy for the purpose of treating an emotional or psychiatric condition, the right to recover for malpractice which worsens that condition and in so doing causes severe emotional distress is clear. Indeed, the majority cite ample authority for such recovery, but for reasons that are unclear, refuse to acknowledge that professional malpractice is the sole basis for holding that the mothers stated a cause of action in their complaint.
I cannot join the majority in suggesting that Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, supra, 27 Cal.3d 916, is relevant here, or has any application beyond its facts. I agree, however, that the plaintiff mothers have stated a *601cause of action—for professional malpractice—in which damages for severe emotional distress may be recovered. I, therefore, concur in the judgment.
Lucas, C. J., and Panelli, J., concurred.