Court Opinion

ID: 9666890
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:29:24.084709+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:33.337408
License: Public Domain

SPECTOR, Justice,
dissenting.
Over five years ago, a trial court issued a divorce decree that included an award to Sheila Twyman of $15,000 for the years of abuse she had suffered at the hands of her husband. At the time, the award was consistent with prevailing Texas law. Today, the plurality sets aside the trial court’s award and sends Sheila Twyman back to start the process over in a new trial. Because justice for Sheila Twyman has been both delayed and denied, I dissent.
*641I.
At trial, Sheila testified that her husband, William Twyman, introduced bondage activities into their relationship after their marriage. Sheila told William that she could not endure these activities because of the trauma of having been raped several years earlier. She also informed William that she had been cut with a knife during the rape, and had been placed in fear for her life. Although William understood that Sheila equated bondage with her prior experience of being raped, he told Sheila that if she would not satisfy his desires by engaging in bondage, there would be no future to their marriage.
As a result, Sheila experienced “utter despair” and “devastation,” as well as physical problems — weight loss and, after one encounter, prolonged bleeding that necessitated gynecological treatment. The pain and humiliation of the bondage activity caused her to seek help from three professional counselors.
The trial court found that William “engaged in a continuing course of conduct of attempting to coerce [Sheila] to join in his practices of ‘bondage’ by continually asserting that [their] marriage could be saved only by [Sheila] participating with [William] in his practices of ‘bondage.’ ” The trial court also determined that Sheila’s suffering was certainly foreseeable from William’s continuing course of conduct, “in light of his existing knowledge of her long-existing emotional state, which was caused by her having been forcibly raped prior to their marriage.” Finally, the trial court found that Sheila’s mental anguish was a direct proximate result of William’s sexual practices.
Based on the pleadings, evidence, and arguments, the trial court concluded that the facts and the law supported Sheila’s recovery of $15,000 for William’s negligent infliction of emotional distress. The court of appeals, in an opinion by Justice Gam-mage, affirmed the trial court’s judgment under prevailing tort law and noted that this court had expressly approved the recovery of damages on a negligence claim in a divorce action. 790 S.W.2d 819, 823 (citing Price v. Price, 732 S.W.2d 316 (Tex.1987)).
This court, however, has now rejected Texas law established to provide redress for injuries of the kind inflicted by William Twyman. While allowing some tort claims to be brought in a divorce action, the plurality forbids recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress, and insists that Sheila Twyman proceed on a theory of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
II.
Today’s decision is handed down contemporaneously with the overruling of the motion for rehearing in Boyles v. Kerr, 855 S.W.2d 593 (Tex.1993), in which this court reversed a judgment in favor of a woman who was surreptitiously videotaped during intercourse, then subjected to humiliation and ridicule when the tape was displayed to others. In Boyles, as in this case, a majority of this court has determined that severe, negligently-inflicted emotional distress does not warrant judicial relief — no matter how intolerable the injurious conduct. The reasoning originally articulated in Boyles, and now implied in this case, is that “[t]ort law cannot and should not attempt to provide redress for every instance of rude, insensitive, or distasteful behavior”; providing such relief, the Boyles majority explained, “would dignify most disputes far beyond their social importance.” 36 Tex. S.CtJ. 231, 233-234 (Dec. 2, 1992).1
Neither of these cases involves “rude, insensitive, or distasteful behavior”; they involve grossly offensive conduct that was appropriately found to warrant judicial relief. The decision in Boyles overturns well-reasoned case law, and I strongly agree with the dissenting opinion in that case. For the same reasons, I strongly disagree with the plurality here; the rule embodied *642in Boyles is no less objectionable when applied to the facts of this case. Sheila Twyman is entitled to recover the amount awarded by the trial court for the injuries inflicted by her husband.
III.
It is no coincidence that both this cause and Boyles involve serious emotional distress claims asserted by women against men. From the beginning, tort recovery for infliction of emotional distress has developed primarily as a means of compensating women for injuries inflicted by men insensitive to the harm caused by their conduct. In “[t]he leading case which broke through the shackles,”2 a man amused himself by falsely informing a woman that her husband had been gravely injured, causing a serious and permanent shock to her nervous system. Wilkinson v. Downton, 2 Q.B.D. 57 (1897). Similarly, in the watershed Texas case, a man severely beat two others in the presence of a pregnant woman, who suffered a miscarriage as a result of her emotional distress. Hill v. Kimball, 76 Tex. 210, 13 S.W. 59 (1890). By World War II, the pattern was well-established: one survey of psychic injury claims found that the ratio of female to male plaintiffs was five to one. Hubert Winston Smith, Relation of Emotions to Injury and Disease: Legal Liability for Psychic Stimuli, 30 Va.L.Rev. 193 (1944).
Even today, when emotional distress claims by both sexes have become more widely accepted, women’s claims against men predominate. Of the thirty-four Texas cases cited by the plurality — all decided since 1987 — women’s claims outnumbered men’s by a ratio of five to four; 3 and only four of the thirty-four involved any female defendants.4 Of those cases involving relations between two individuals — with no corporations involved — five involved a woman’s claim against a man;5 none involved a man’s claim against a woman.
I do not argue that women alone have an interest in recovery for emotional distress. However, since the overwhelming majority of emotional distress claims have arisen from harmful conduct by men, rather than women, I do argue that men have had a disproportionate interest in downplaying such claims.
Like the struggle for women’s rights, the movement toward recovery for emotional distress has been long and tortuous. See Peter A. Bell, The Bell Tolls: Toward Full Tort Recovery for Psychic Injury, 36 U.Fla.L.Rev. 333, 336-40 (1984). In the judicial system dominated by men, emotional distress claims have historically been marginalized:
The law of torts values physical security and property more highly than emotional security and human relationships. This apparently gender-neutral hierarchy of values has privileged men, as the traditional owners and managers of property, and has burdened women, to whom the emotional work of maintaining human relationships has commonly been assigned. The law has often failed to compensate women for recurring harms— serious though they may be in the lives *643of women — for which there is no precise masculine analogue.
Martha Chamabas and Linda K. Kerber, Women, Mothers, and the Law of Fright: A History, 88 Mich.L.Rev. 814 (1990). Even Prosser recognizes the role of gender in the historical treatment of claims like that involved in Hill v. Kimball:
It is not difficult to discover in the earlier opinions a distinctly masculine astonishment that any woman should ever allow herself to be frightened or shocked into a miscarriage.
W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 12, at 55-56 (5th ed. 1984).
Displaying a comparable “masculine astonishment,” the dissenting opinion by Justice Hecht insists that, with a few possible exceptions, women have played no distinct part in the development of tort recovery for emotional distress. As a general matter, Justice Hecht questions how a legal system dominated by men could develop a tort to compensate women even while marginalizing women’s claims. The answer is amply illustrated by the present case: to provide some appearance of relief for Sheila Twyman, the court recognizes the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress; but in doing so, it restricts her to a theory which, as Justice Hecht observes, is “seldom successful.” 855 S.W.2d at 631.
Justice Hecht acknowledges that in the early cases, recovery for emotional distress “frequently involved female plaintiffs.” 855 S.W.2d at 631. However, rather than viewing this phenomenon as an indication of actual, serious injuries, Justice Hecht suggests that it may have been due to a patronizing attitude on the part of the courts.
There is little doubt that some of the case law in this area, as in any other, reflects a patronizing view of women. More often, though, the case law reflects the logical application of existing law to a wide range of claims. For example, in the only case cited by Justice Hecht to illustrate an arguably patronizing view of women, there was evidence that men employed by a railroad had humiliated a man’s ten-year-old daughter by subjecting her to obscene language; but there was no evidence that the language had humiliated the father. Fort Worth & Rio Grande Ry. Co. v. Bryant, 210 S.W. 556 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1918, writ ref’d). There is nothing patronizing about holding a railroad company responsible for the harm caused by its employees’ conduct.
I would group Bryant with the many other common carrier cases that were decided, in Justice Hecht’s terms, “without particular regard for gender.” 855 S.W.2d at 639. Neither the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, nor any of the other courts at the time were primarily concerned with protecting women’s rights. But in Bryant, as in so many of the other cases, the evolution of the law regarding emotional distress claims did enable a female to recover for emotional harm inflicted by men. This fact does not reflect a charitable desire to help women; it reflects the fact that the serious emotional distress claims usually involved injuries inflicted by men upon women.
Given this history, the plurality’s emphatic rejection of infliction of emotional distress claims based on negligence is especially troubling. Today, when the widespread mistreatment of women is being documented throughout the country — for instance, in the areas of sexual harassment 6 and domestic violence7 — a majority of this court takes a step backward and abolishes one way of righting this grievous wrong.
*644IV.
Rather than dismissing Sheila’s claim outright, the plurality remands this cause to the trial court to allow Sheila to seek recovery under an alternative theory. I agree that Sheila is entitled to pursue a claim based upon intentional infliction of emotional distress, as set out in section 46 of the Restatement (2d) of Torts.
However, in restricting recovery for emotional distress to claims based upon intent, the plurality, joined by Justice Gonzalez’s concurring opinion, demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of claims like those presented by Susan Kerr and Sheila Twyman. While recognizing that recovery should be allowed for conduct intended to inflict injury, the plurality fails to acknowledge the severe emotional distress often caused unintentionally.
This court has previously made clear that the distinguishing feature of an intentional tort is “the specific intent to inflict injury.” Reed Tool Co. v. Copelin, 689 S.W.2d 404, 406 (Tex.1985) (citing Restatement (2d) of Torts § 8A (1965)); see also Rodriguez v. Naylor Indus., 763 S.W.2d 411, 412 (Tex.1988). This definition of an “intentional” injury is echoed in the portion of the Restatement governing intentional infliction of emotional distress:
The rule stated in this Section applies where the actor desires to inflict severe emotional distress, and also where he knows that such distress is certain, or substantially certain, to result from his conduct.
Restatement (2d) of Torts § 46 cmt. i (1965).
Unfortunately, in many cases, severe emotional distress is caused by an actor who does not actually desire to inflict severe emotional distress, and who is even oblivious to the fact that such distress is certain, or substantially certain, to result from his conduct. It may well be the case, for example, that William Twyman never actually intended to inflict emotional distress upon Sheila, and never expected the injury that his conduct caused. Rather, he may have insisted on bondage activities solely for the purpose of satisfying his own desires. Similarly, Dan Boyles may have videotaped his activities with Susan Kerr not for the purpose of injuring her, but rather for the purpose of amusing himself and his friends.
I do not argue, as the plurality asserts, that “the emotional harm William caused was foreseeable but not substantially certain to occur.” 855 S.W.2d at 624. I do argue, though, that Sheila’s recovery for William’s conduct should not depend upon proof of William’s sensitivity. To apply a standard based on intent is to excuse William’s conduct so long as he believed his actions were harmless.
Brutish behavior that causes severe injury, even though unintentionally, should not be trivialized. Foreclosing recovery for such behavior may prevent litigation of frivolous claims; but it also denies redress in exactly those instances where it is most needed.
V.
While the plurality would allow some possibility of recovery for injuries like Sheila Twyman’s, the dissenting opinions by Chief Justice Phillips and Justice Hecht would allow none at all. Adopting the medieval view of marital relations, Chief Justice Phillips argues that spouses should be shielded from liability for even the most outrageous acts against one another. This view echoes William Twyman’s assertion at trial that, by consenting to marriage, Sheila Twyman assumed the risk of physical injury and emotional harm. Fortunately, in Texas, this archaic view has been soundly rejected; interspousal immunity has been abolished “completely as to any cause of action.” Price v. Price, 732 S.W.2d 316, 320 (Tex.1987). Insulating spouses from liability, we have noted, “would amount to a repudiation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws.” Id. Thus, recovery for intentional infliction of emotional distress should be available to spouses and non-spouses alike, as other states have recognized.8
*645Justice Hecht not only agrees that spouses should have special protection from liability, but further argues that recovery for intentional infliction of emotional distress should never be allowed in any case. In Justice Hecht’s view, the tort set out in section 46 of the Restatement is “too broad a rubric to describe actionable conduct, as this case illustrates.” 855 S.W.2d at 680. Cases from the forty-six jurisdictions that recognize this tort comprise a unified body of law that would suggest otherwise. As Justice Hecht acknowledges, claims under section 46 are “seldom successful”; defendants have been held subject to liability only in those instances in which the defendant’s conduct was clearly “beyond the bounds of decency.”9 Unlike Justice Hecht, I believe the judicial system is fully capable of distinguishing trivial acts from those acts that are sufficiently outrageous to warrant relief.
VI.
The claim asserted by Sheila Twyman was based on a simple premise: her husband should be held accountable for the foreseeable consequences of his conduct. The courts below, in applying the law, understood the nature and extent of such conduct; the plurality does not. Tragically, the lack of understanding shown today will only lead to more delay and more injustice.
Justice DOGGETT joins in this dissenting opinion.

. On rehearing, the Boyles majority has reworded slightly its discussion but reiterated its reasoning and result. The majority's overriding concern there has remained the avoidance of relief for "merely rude or insensitive behavior.” 855 S.W.2d 593, 602.

. William L. Prosser, Insult and Outrage, 44 Cal.L.Rev. 40, 42 (1956).

. The plurality downplays this fact by miscate-gorizing two cases involving women’s emotional distress claims: Resolution Trust Corp. v. Cook, 840 S.W.2d 42 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1992, writ denied) (claim asserted only on behalf of wife) and Godinet v. Thomas, 824 S.W.2d 632 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, writ denied) (survivorship claim brought on behalf of deceased woman).

. Weirich v. Weirich, 833 S.W.2d 942 (Tex.1992) (defendants included a man and his mother); Schauer v. Memorial Care Systems, 1993 WL 73419 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.], March 18, 1993) (defendants included hospital and one of its officers); Godinet v. Thomas, 824 S.W.2d 632 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, writ denied) (defendants included a female doctor and other health care providers); Valenzuela v. Aquino, 800 S.W.2d 301, 306 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1990, writ granted) (defendants include an organization, five men and four women).

. Boyles v. Kerr, 806 S.W.2d 255; Twyman v. Twyman, 790 S.W.2d 819; Massey v. Massey, 807 S.W.2d 391, 397 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, writ requested); Chiles v. Chiles, 779 S.W.2d 127, 130 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist] 1989, writ denied); Blair v. Blair, 1991 WL 9266 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, writ denied).

. During the 1980s, complaints of sexual harassment nearly doubled. Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, at xvi, 464 (1991) (citing statistics from U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, "National Database: Charge Receipt Listing," 1982-88; "Sexual Harassment,” 1981-89). A 1988 survey found that 42 percent of federally-employed women said they had been sexually harassed, and a U.S. Navy survey the same year found that more than half the women in the navy were victims of sexual harassment. Id. at 525.

. See American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, “Violence Against Women: Relevance for Medical Practitioners," 267 J.Am. Med.Ass’n 3184, 3185 (1992).

. The state supreme court that reexamined this issue most recently noted, "Courts around the *645country have recognized that public policy considerations should not bar actions for intentional infliction of emotional distress between spouses or former spouses based on conduct occurring during the marriage." Henriksen v. Cameron, 622 A.2d 1135, 1140 (Me.1993) (citations omitted).

. See, e.g., Whelan v. Whelan, 41 Conn.Supp. 519, 588 A.2d 251, 253 (1991) (in divorce action, wife stated a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress based on husband’s false statement to her that he had AIDS); Lapinad v. Pacific Oldsmobile-GMC, Inc., 679 F.Supp. 991, 996 (D.Hawaii 1988) (recognizing that ”[s]exually harassing behavior is outrageous”).