Court Opinion

ID: 9708914
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:35:17.043043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:44.585720
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that a parent who learns that her child has been fatally injured in an accident, and who arrives on the scene of the accident within a few minutes of the tragedy, is unable to assert a claim for the *288negligent infliction of emotional distress against the persons responsible for the accident, because the mother was not an eyewitness to her child’s slaughter. .
The opinion in support of reversal authored by Mr. Justice Flaherty in Yandrich v. Radic, 495 Pa. 243, 433 A.2d 459 (1981), best expresses my views on this subject, and leads me to conclude that there is no reason, either in justice or public policy, why the liability of the tortfeasor should not be extended to cover actual harm caused by the emotional distress experienced by a parent who, although she did not witness the accident, experienced emotional trauma wrought her by the mangled condition of her child. In Yandrich, supra, Messrs. Justice Flaherty, Larsen and Kauffman articulately pleaded that the extension of liability permitted by this Court in Sinn v. Burd, 486 Pa. 146, 404 A.2d 672 (1979), should apply in situations where a parent suffers emotional injury because of trauma to his child, even though the parent was not a witness to the accident. Noting that the guiding principle of analysis is that “one may seek redress for every substantial wrong,” Mr. Justice Flaherty observed the obvious, that “in most cases, a parent’s receipt of news that his child has been killed in an accident will cause the parent severe emotional distress.” Yandrich 495 Pa. at 253, 433 A.2d at 464.
I agree that whether such distress actually exists and whether it was caused by a defendant’s negligence are questions for the jury. Legally, this distress, if it exists, is a “substantial wrong.” Once again, this Court draws arbitrary lines in favor of shutting the doors of the courts of this Commonwealth against those who would establish their injuries and seek redress in direct opposition to the guarantees reserved in the people by Article I, Section 11, of our Constitution:
There should be no hesitation to permit recovery for the emotional distress experienced by a parent who, although he did not witness the accident, nevertheless, experienced *289emotional trauma because of his son’s injury. There is substantial injury in both cases. Who can say that the emotional strain experienced by the parent witnessing the death of his child is greater than the emotional strain experienced by a parent sitting helplessly in a hospital while his child dies? Certainly, the experiences of the parents are different, but each has an inescapable common element: the child is dead. Yandrich, 495 Pa. at 253-254, 433 A.2d at 464.
While the author of these views has since abandoned them, I am proud to adopt them as my own to pick up the torch in the agon which would insure that the injured can find redress in our courts for the harms done them.
The majority seems to suggest that the harm caused by the emotional trauma is no more serious, and has no more a lasting effect, than the grief we ordinarily suffer with the loss of a loved one. I agree that grief alone is not the type of harm which should be compensated by money damages. However, the existence of actual physical or mental harm must be left to findings of the jury based upon evidence presented to it.
If a person suffers actual harm from the wrongful conduct of another, then damages must be awarded. The Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, Section 11, mandates that:
[E]very man for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy by due course of law ...
We can do no more than enforce this right by giving Mrs. Mazzagatti the opportunity to assert her claim of emotional distress against the persons responsible for the accident which killed her child.
I join Justice LARSEN’s dissent.
LARSEN, J., joins this dissenting opinion.