Court Opinion

ID: 9579912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:59:50.066757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:53.377355
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
dissenting as to Part II:
The majority opinion states that an “[ijnvasion of privacy occurs when one intentionally intrudes, physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of another or his private concerns or affairs.” Ante at 698. However, with the possible exception of the defendant Sister Mary Bernadette, the Court’s opinion points to no evidence that defendants Schuckardt, Chicóme, The Fatima Crusade, or Christ the King Priory, Inc., “intentionally intrude[d], physically or otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of [the plaintiffs]____”
*484The trial court granted its judgment notwithstanding the verdict because such evidence was totally lacking. The Court’s opinion today does not identify any evidence of intentional intrusion, but rather assumes that, “if Sister Mary Bernadette knew about the restraining order, other church members were also likely to have known about it.” Ante at 700. The Court then finds that, “Clearly, the restraining order was violated by Pauline and other persons likely to know of its existence.” However, Pauline, Jerry’s wife, was not a party defendant to the action. The Court then concludes by stating, “The jury was entitled to conclude from the evidence that this behavior was intentional, wrongful, and an intrusion.”
The only evidence which the Court’s opinion points out which could even possibly sustain the jury verdict was with regard to the defendant Sister Mary Bernadette. There was no evidence that the other defendants intentionally intruded. It is not enough merely to state that other “church members were also likely to have known about it.” That is an assumption for which there is no evidence in the record.
Accordingly, the trial court was correct in concluding that there was no substantial evidence that the defendants Schuckardt, Fatima Crusade, Chicoine, and Christ the King Priory, Inc., ever intentionally intruded upon the solitude or seclusion of the plaintiffs. As to those defendants at least, the trial court’s judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the invasion of privacy claim should be affirmed.