Court Opinion

ID: 9597705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:02:15.358941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:28:25.659680
License: Public Domain

KAUFMAN, J., Concurring.
We granted review in this case because of the obvious and continuing difficulties that have plagued trial courts and litigants in the area of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Of course, any meaningful review of the issue necessarily entails reappraising, in the light of 20 years of experience, our landmark holding in Dillon v. Legg (1968) 68 Cal.2d 728 [69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912, 29 A.L.R.3d 1316], that a plaintiff may recover for the emotional distress induced by the apprehension of negligently caused injury to a third person. Two such “reappraisals” have now been suggested.
The majority opinion by Justice Eagleson proposes to convert Dillon's flexible “guidelines” 1 for determining whether the risk of emotional injury was foreseeable or within the defendant’s duty of care, into strict “elements” necessary to recovery. While conceding that such a doctrinaire approach will necessarily lead to “arbitrary” results, Justice Eagleson nevertheless concludes that “[g]reater certainty and a more reasonable limit on the exposure to liability for negligent conduct” require strict limitations. (Maj. opn., p. 666.)
Justice Broussard, in dissent, opposes the effort to rigidify the Dillon guidelines. He urges, instead, that the court remain faithful to the guidelines *670as originally conceived—as specific but “flexible” limitations on liability— and adhere to Dillon's original reliance on “foreseeability as a general limit on tort liability.” (Dis. opn. of Broussard, J., p. 685.) Justice Broussard denies that Dillon has failed to afford adequate guidance to the lower courts or to confine liability within reasonable limits. On the contrary, the Dillon approach, in the dissent’s view, has provided—and continues to provide—a workable and “principled basis for determining liability. ...” (Id. at p. 689, italics added.)2
With all due respect, I do not believe that either the majority opinion or the dissent has articulated a genuinely “principled” rule of law. On the one hand, experience has shown that rigid doctrinal limitations on bystander liability, such as that suggested by Justice Eagleson, result inevitably in disparate treatment of plaintiffs in substantially the same position. To be sure, the majority freely—one might say almost cheerfully —acknowledges that its position is arbitrary; yet nowhere does it consider the cost of such institutionalized caprice, not only to the individuals involved, but to the integrity of the judiciary as a whole.
On the other hand, two decades of adjudication under the inexact guidelines created by Dillon and touted by the dissent, has, if anything, created a body of case law marked by even greater confusion and inconsistency of result. (See Nolan and Ursin, Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress: Coherence Emerging from Chaos (1982) 33 Hastings L.J. 583, 620 [“Arbitrary and unseemly results in emotional distress cases have been the consequence of this experimentation.”].)
The situation, therefore, calls for a wholesale reappraisal of the wisdom of permitting recovery for emotional distress resulting from injury to others.
A. Background
The history of negligent infliction of emotional distress is a chronicle of “false starts.” (Nolan and Ursin, supra, 33 Hastings L.J. at p. 604.) Initially, the courts were reluctant to allow any recovery for intangible harms such as fright or emotional distress resulting from negligent conduct. (Prosser and Keeton, The Law of Torts (5th ed. 1984) § 54, p. 360.) Later, plaintiffs were permitted to recover for the emotional distress occasioned by the fear for their own safety, but only when accompanied by physical impact. (Prosser *671and Keeton, supra, § 54, pp. 363-364; Comment Dillon Revisited: Toward A Better Paradigm for Bystander Cases (1982) 43 Ohio St. L.J. 932, 933-934.)
The “impact” rule was soon recognized as inherently arbitrary, however, because of the obvious discontinuity between the rule’s scope and its underlying purpose. As one commentator wryly observed, “[A] near miss may be as frightening as a direct hit.” (Pearson, Liability to Bystanders for Negligently Inflicted Emotional Harm—A Comment on the Nature of Arbitrary Rules (1982) 34 U.Fla.L.Rev. 477, 488.)
Thus, the “impact” rule was eventually replaced by a rule allowing recovery for the emotional distress resulting from threats to the plaintiff’s safety, regardless of physical impact, if the plaintiff was within the “zone of physical impact or danger.” (See, e.g., Battalla v. State (1961) 10 N.Y.2d 257 [219 N.Y.S.2d 34, 176 N.E.2d 729]; Waube v. Warrington (1935) 216 Wis. 603 [258 N.W. 497]); Note, Limiting Liability for the Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress: The “Bystander Recovery” Cases (1981) 54 So.Cal.L.Rev. 847, 849-850.) The seminal California decision rejecting the impact test in favor of the zone-of-danger rule is Amaya v. Home, Ice, Fuel & Supply Co., supra, 59 Cal.2d 295.
In reaffirming the zone-of-danger rule, the Amaya court rejected the argument that liability should be extended in favor of one who claims injury through fright or shock induced by negligent conduct directed not to oneself but to a third person. While acknowledging that emotional trauma induced by the apprehension of danger to a loved one was eminently “foreseeable,” the Amaya court nevertheless refused to recognize that freedom from such distress constituted a legally protected interest. A number of policy reasons were cited by the Amaya court in support of its decision, including: the risk of fraudulent claims based upon such intangible “psychic” injuries; the threat of unlimited liability and the attendant economic strain on the insurance system; the disproportionality between the culpability of the negligent tortfeasor and the liability imposed; and the impossibility of formulating a “sensible or just stopping point.” (59 Cal.2d at pp. 310-315.)
Only five years later, however, in Dillon v. Legg, supra, 68 Cal.2d 728, the court reversed field, rejecting Amaya’s zone-of-danger test as “hopelessly artificial” and recognizing for the first time in American jurisprudence the concept of “bystander” liability. In Dillon, the plaintiff’s daughter was struck and killed by a car negligently driven by the defendant. Plaintiff, who observed the accident from an unspecified location, sought damages for the emotional distress resulting from the incident; plaintiff’s other daughter, who was standing on the curb, also claimed emotional distress. The trial court sustained a motion for summary judgment as to the plaintiff, the *672decedent’s mother, on the ground that the pleadings failed to establish that she was within the zone of danger and feared for her own safety, but denied a similar motion as to the daughter because of the possibility that she was within such zone and feared for her own safety. (Id. at pp. 731-732.)
The Dillon court reversed, explaining its reasoning as follows: “[W]e can hardly justify relief to the sister for trauma which she suffered upon apprehension of the child’s death and yet deny it to the mother merely because of a happenstance that the sister was some few yards closer to the accident. The instant case exposes the hopeless artificiality of the zone-of-danger rule.” (68 Cal.2d at p. 733.) And so the Dillon court recognized the mother’s right to recover for emotional distress caused by the apprehension of danger to her daughter; delineated its now-famous guidelines for determining foreseeability; and left to “future cases” the task of delimiting “bystander” liability “upon facts more subtle than the compelling ones alleged in the complaint before us.” (Id. at p. 741.)
Of course, it was immediately apparent that the Dillon court’s holding was not really based on any inherent flaw or “artificiality” in the zone-of-danger rule. As the Dillon dissent pointed out, that rule was designed to compensate for the emotional distress occasioned by the fear of physical impact solely “to oneself.” (68 Cal.2d at p. 750, dis. opn. of Burke, J.) A rule which permitted such recovery to one within the zone of physical impact or danger was not arbitrary at all. (Ibid.) It became arbitrary only after the court recognized fear for the safety of others as a legally protected interest. (See Pearson, supra, 34 U.Fla.L.Rev. at pp. 490-491.) Indeed, as discussed below, the zone-of-danger rule remains a viable measure of emotional distress in many states where the bystander-recovery rule has been rejected as inherently arbitrary.
B. Dillon Rejected as Hopelessly Arbitrary
In light of the foregoing, it is perhaps not surprising to find that during the last 20 years Dillon has played to decidedly mixed reviews among our sister states. While many have adopted the Dillon approach or some variation thereon, many others have explicitly rejected “bystander” recovery and adopted in its place the “zone-of-danger” rule articulated in the very decision which Dillon overruled, Amaya v. Home Ice Fuel & Supply Co., supra, 59 Cal.2d 295. (See, e.g., Rickey v. Chicago Transit Authority (1983) 98 Ill.2d 546 [457 N.E.2d 1, 5]; Towns v. Anderson (1978) 195 Colo. 517 [579 P.2d 1163] and James v. Harris (Colo.App. 1986) 729 P.2d 986; Guilmette v. Alexander (1969) 128 Vt. 116 [259 A.2d 12] and Vaillancourt v. Medical Ctr. Hosp. of Vt. (1980) 139 Vt. 138 [425 A.2d 92]; Whetham v. Bismarck Hospital (N.D. 1972) 197 N.W.2d 678; Stadler v. Cross (Minn. 1980) 295 *673N.W.2d 552 and Leaon v. Washington County (Minn. 1986) 397 N.W.2d 867; Grimsby v. Samson (1975) 85 Wn.2d 52 [530 P.2d 291, 77 A.L.R.2d 436].) Indeed, despite the wide range of opinion on the subject of negligent infliction of emotional distress, several recent decisions have noted that the majority of jurisdictions where the question has been considered have rejected the Dillon approach in favor of the zone-of-danger rule. (See Rickey v. Chicago Transit Authority, supra, 475 N.E.2d at p. 5; Gillman v. Burlington Northern R. Co. (N.D.Ill. 1987) 673 F.Supp. 913, 917, fn. 1.)
While the courts rejecting bystander liability have cited a number of reasons, one argument in particular has been considered dispositive: Dillon's confident prediction that future courts would be able to fix just and sensible boundaries on bystander liability has been found to be wholly illusory—both in theory and in practice.3 (See, e.g., Stadler v. Cross, supra, 295 N.W.2d at p. 555 [“No arguments have been presented that persuade us that the problems we see in limiting liability once it is extended beyond the zone of danger of physical impact can be justly overcome.”]; Grimsby v. Samson, supra, 530 P.2d at p. 294 [“(T)here appears to be no rational way to restrict the scope of liability even as attempted by Dillon's three limiting standards.”]; James v. Harris, supra, 729 P.2d at p. 988 [“ ‘Assuming that there are cogent reasons for extending liability in favor of victims of shock resulting from injury to others, there appears to be no rational way to limit the scope of liability.’ ”].)
As the New York Court of Appeals, writing one year after Dillon, presciently observed: “Every parent who loses a child or whose child . . . suffers an injury is likely to sustain grievous psychological trauma. . . . Any rule based ... on eyewitnessing the accident could stand only until the first case comes along in which the parent is in the immediate vicinity but did not see the accident.” (Tobin v. Grossman, supra, 249 N.E.2d at p. 423.) Of course, that case “came along” in California only one short year after Dillon. In Archibald v. Braverman (1969) 275 Cal.App.2d 253 [79 Cal.Rptr. 723], the court allowed recovery by a mother who “did not actually witness the tort but viewed the child’s injuries within moments after the occurrence of the injury-producing event.” (Id. at p. 255.) Similar cases have followed. In Nazaroff v. Superior Court (1978) 80 Cal.App.3d 553 [145 Cal.Rptr. 657], for example, the court reversed the entry of summary judgment in favor of the defendant, holding that a mother who *674had witnessed her infant son being pulled from a pool minutes after drowning could state a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. In the very case now under review, the Court of Appeal reversed the entry of summary judgment in favor of defendants, the owners and driver of a car which struck the child of the plaintiff", Maria Thing, where the evidence showed that Maria did not see the impact but rushed to the scene in time to see her son lying in the street, bleeding, and rode in the ambulance that took him to the hospital for treatment of severe injuries.
Of course, not all interpretations of Dillon have been so liberal. In Arauz v. Gerhardt (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 937 [137 Cal.Rptr. 619], for example, the court denied recovery to a mother who arrived at the scene of a car accident involving her child within five minutes of the event; the court noted that the plaintiff" was “not at the scene of the accident at the time of the impact and [was] not near enough to the scene to have any sensory perception of the impact. . . .” (Id. at p. 949.) In Hathaway v. Superior Court (1980) 112 Cal.App.3d 728 [169 Cal.Rptr. 435], the court denied recovery to the parents of a child who was electrocuted while playing in a relative’s yard as the parents relaxed inside. Though the plaintiff’s arrived less than one minute after the accident and saw the child lying in a puddle, gagging and spitting up, the court held that Dillon precluded recovery because the infant “was no longer gripping the water cooler and receiving the electrical charge.” (Id. at p. 736.)
Twenty-five years ago, this court posed a series of rhetorical questions concerning the guidelines later adopted in Dillon: “[H]ow soon is ‘fairly contemporaneous?’ What is the magic in the plaintiff’s being ‘present’? Is the shock any less immediate if the mother does not know of the accident until the injured child is brought home? And what if the plaintiff is present at the scene but is nevertheless unaware of the danger or injury to the third person until shortly after the accident has occurred . . . ?” (Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co., supra, 59 Cal.2d at p. 313.) As the foregoing sampling of Dillon’s progeny vividly demonstrates, we are no closer to answers today than we were then. The questions, however, are no longer hypothetical—they are real: Is there any rational basis to infer that Mrs. Arauz was any less traumatized than Mrs. Dillon because she saw her bloody infant five minutes after it was struck by defendant’s car? Was the Hathaways’ suffering mitigated by the fact that they witnessed their child literally in death’s throes, but failed to witness the precipitating event? Could it be argued that the emotional distress is even more traumatic, more foreseeable, for parents such as the Hathaways who fail to witness the accident and later blame themselves for allowing it to occur?
Clearly, to apply the Dillon guidelines strictly and deny recovery for emotional distress because the plaintiff was not a contemporaneous eyewit*675ness of the accident but viewed the immediate consequences, ill serves the policy of compensating foreseeable victims of emotional trauma. Yet once it is admitted that temporal and spatial limitations bear no rational relationship to the likelihood of psychic injury, it becomes impossible to define, as the Amaya court well understood, any “sensible or just stopping point.” (59 Cal.2d at p. 311.) By what humane and principled standard might a court decide, as a matter of law, that witnessing the bloody and chaotic aftermath of an accident involving a loved one is compensable if viewed within 1 minute of impact but noncompensable after 15? or 30? Is the shock of standing by while others undertake frantic efforts to save the life of one’s child any less real or foreseeable when it occurs in an ambulance or emergency room rather than at the “scene”?
Obviously, a “flexible” construction of the Dillon guidelines cannot, ultimately, avoid drawing arbitrary and irrational distinctions any more than a strict construction. Justice Burke was right when he observed of the Dillon guidelines, “Upon analysis, their seeming certainty evaporates into arbitrariness, and inexplicable distinctions appear.” (Dillon v. Legg, supra, 68 Cal.2d at p. 749, dis. opn. of Burke, J.)
C. Dillon’s Arbitrary Approach Should Be Overturned
Of course, it could be argued that recovery—not rationality—is the essential thing; that ultimately justice is better served by arbitrarily denying recovery to some, than by absolutely denying recovery to all. I find this argument to be unpersuasive, however, for two reasons.
First, the cost of the institutionalized caprice which Dillon has wrought should not be underestimated. The foremost duty of the courts in a free society is the principled declaration of public norms. The legitimacy, prestige and effectiveness of the judiciary—the “least dangerous branch”—ultimately depend on public confidence in our unwavering commitment to this ideal. Any breakdown in principled decisionmaking, any rule for which no principled basis can be found and clearly articulated, subverts and discredits the institution as a whole.
It is not always easy, of course, to accommodate the desire for individual justice with the need for reasoned, well-grounded, general principles. We sacrifice the latter for the sake of the former, however, only at our peril. For the “power-base” of the courts, as noted above, is rather fragile; it consists of the perception of our role in the structure of American government as the voice of reason, and the faith that the laws we make today, we ourselves will be bound by tomorrow. Any “rule”—such as Dillon’s—which permits and even encourages judgments based not on universal standards but individual *676expediency, erodes the public trust which we serve, and on which we ultimately depend.
There is a second reason, apart from the inherently corrosive effect of arbitrary rules, that points to the conclusion that “bystander” liability should not be retained. The interest in freedom from emotional distress caused by negligent injury to a third party is simply not, in my view, an interest which the law can or should protect. It is not that the interest is less than compelling. The suffering of a parent from the death or injury of a child is terribly poignant, and has always been so. (See Tobin v. Grossman, supra, 249 N.E.2d at p. 422.) It is the very universality of such injury, however, which renders it inherently unsuitable to legal protection. The observation of the New York Court of Appeals in this regard is particularly pertinent: “While it may seem that there should be a remedy for every wrong, this is an ideal limited perforce by the realities of this world. . . . The risks of indirect harm from the loss or injury of loved ones is pervasive and inevitably realized at one time or another. Only a very small part of that risk is brought about by the culpable acts of others. This is the risk of living and bearing children. It is enough that the law establishes liability in favor of those directly or intentionally harmed.” (Id. at p. 424.)
A final argument against overruling Dillon is, of course, the simple fact that it has been the law for 20 years. Stare decisis should not be lightly dismissed in any thoughtful reconsideration of the law. History and experience, however, are the final judge of whether a decision was right or wrong, whether it should be retained, modified or abandoned. In this case, history and experience have shown, as the Amaya court accurately predicted, that the quest for sensible and just limits on bystander liability is “an inherently fruitless one.” (59 Cal.2d at p. 313.)
Adherence to precedent cannot justify the perpetuation of a policy ill-conceived in theory and unfair in practice. As Justice Harlan aptly observed: “[A] judicious reconsideration of precedent cannot be as threatening to public faith in the judiciary as continued adherence to a rule unjustified in reason, which produces different results for breaches of duty in situations that cannot be differentiated in policy. . . .” (Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc. (1970) 398 U.S. 375, 405 [26 L.Ed.2d 339, 359, 90 S.Ct. 1772].)
For the foregoing reasons, therefore, I would overrule Dillon v. Legg, supra, 68 Cal.2d 728, and reinstate Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co., supra, 59 Cal.2d 295 as the law of this state. Since the plaintiff was indisputably not within the zone of danger and could not assert a claim for emotional distress as the result of fear for her own safety, she could not *677establish a right to recover. Accordingly, I concur in the majority’s conclusion that the order granting summary judgment in this case was proper.
MOSK, J., Dissenting.
I am in general agreement with the dissent of Justice Broussard. I write separately to point out my other areas of disagreement with the majority opinion.
Although the majority do not forthrightly overrule Dillon v. Legg (1968) 68 Cal.2d 728 [69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912, 29 A.L.R.3d 1316], and replace it with Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 295 [29 Cal.Rptr. 33, 379 P.2d 513], their preference is evident. Some historical background may be of passing interest.
When Amaya came to this court, Justice Tobriner was required to recuse himself because he had written the opinion in that case for the Court of Appeal. Three active justices and a retired justice sitting pro tern, reached a contrary conclusion, with three active justices dissenting on the grounds urged below by Justice Tobriner. Thus when Dillon v. Legg arrived at the court several years later, it was inevitable that Justice Tobriner would write the opinion, this time for a majority of the full court.
My point is that had there been a full complement of justices on this court at the time, Amaya would have mirrored the rule that ultimately prevailed in Dillon v. Legg. It can be said, of course, that a court is a court, regardless of its permanent or temporary composition. I agree as a general proposition. However, the foregoing history is an explanation for the fortuitous and short life of Amaya.
Beginning with State Rubbish etc. Assn. v. Siliznoff (1952) 38 Cal.2d 330 [240 P.2d 282], a unanimous opinion written by Justice Tray nor 37 years ago, the majority recite a monotonous inventory of cases with which they find fault.1 For the past three decades apparently all the courts in tort cases have been out of step except the current majority.
Krouse v. Graham (1977) 19 Cal.3d 59 [137 Cal.Rptr. 863, 562 P.2d 1022], is high on their list as the source of the “roots of the uncertainty reflected by the instant case.” Yet the facts in Krouse caused little controversy. Justice Richardson declared for a court unanimous on the point: “the Dillon requirement of ‘sensory and contemporaneous observance of the accident’ does not require a visual perception of the impact causing the death or injury. In the matter before us, although [the husband] did not see *678[his wife] struck by defendant’s automobile, he fully perceived the fact that she had been so struck, for he knew her position an instant before the impact, observed defendant’s vehicle approach her at a high speed on a collision course, and realized that defendant’s car must have struck her. Clearly, under such circumstances [the husband] must be deemed a percipient witness to the impact causing [the wife’s] catastrophic injuries.” (Id. at p. 76.)
As Justice Richardson perceptively noted, Dillon called for sensory observance of the accident. That means all of the senses, not merely visual perception. The husband in Krouse was at the scene, heard the impact, and was himself seriously injured in the accident. How that case can be said to cause the “roots of uncertainty,” complained of by the majority, is difficult to comprehend.
In Archibald v. Braverman (1969) 275 Cal.App.2d 253, 256 [79 Cal.Rptr. 723], the Court of Appeal held that “the shock sustained by the mother herein was ‘contemporaneous’ with the explosion so as to satisfy the ‘observance’ factor.” Perhaps my colleagues would have interpreted the facts differently, but in view of the prevailing factual determination, I cannot perceive any rationale for the criticism of the majority.
The next criticism of the majority is directed to Justus v. Atchison (1977) 19 Cal.3d 564 [139 Cal.Rptr. 97, 565 P.2d 122]. Theirs is a strange comment, for in Justus the court found no liability. While the plaintiff was in the delivery room, he was shielded from observing the death of the fetus and did not learn the fact until told later by a physician. As we said, “he had been admitted to the theater but the drama was being played on a different stage.” (Id. at p. 584.)
Nazaroff v. Superior Court (1978) 80 Cal.App.3d 553, 566 [145 Cal.Rptr. 657], a Court of Appeal case, merely followed the instruction in BAJI No. 12.83 (6th ed. 1977), and concluded there were triable issues of fact as to whether the “physical harm to the mother resulted from an emotional shock proximately caused by the direct emotional impact from the contemporaneous observation of the immediate consequences of the defendants’ negligent act, which was the proximate cause of the injury and death of her son.” (Italics added.)
Some big guns are leveled at Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1980) 27 Cal.3d 916 [167 Cal.Rptr. 831, 616 P.2d 813, 16 A.L.R.4th 518], but they miss the target because of misunderstanding the relevant facts in Molien. After giving the wife a physical examination defendant incorrectly and negligently diagnosed her as having syphilis. As a consequence she was *679directed by the physician to require her husband to undergo physical tests to ascertain if he was the source of her purported infection. Those negligent acts by the physician as to both husband and wife were clearly physical in nature.
Why the majority seem to have some trouble with Molien limiting recovery to the “direct victim” of the doctor’s negligence is perplexing. To assure that recovery could not be claimed by an indirect victim or a mere casual bystander, the Molien court very strictly limited recovery to only a person who was directly and physically affected by the defendant’s negligence. In that instance it could be only the wife who was physically examined and the husband who was instructed to be physically examined. The court made it abundantly clear that “the alleged tortious conduct of defendant was directed to [the husband] as well as to his wife.” (27 Cal.3d at p. 923.) Thus both were direct victims.
That the majority fail to understand Molien is underscored by their comment that the parties did not suffer physical injury. The brutal fact is that the defendant committed malpractice in negligently diagnosing the wife in a physical examination as having a serious venereal disease and in directing the husband to undergo a physical examination. I cannot be as casual as the majority in concluding there is no physical aspect to negligent examinations for syphilis. Not physical? Do they believe such examinations are conducted over the telephone?
While the majority choose some partial quotations from Andalon v. Superior Court (1984) 162 Cal.App.3d 600 [208 Cal.Rptr. 899], that suggest the court had difficulty with the Molien rule, the fact is that the court properly analyzed the rule and found the plaintiff there to have a Molien cause of action. As the court pointed out, the end and aim of “the transaction with Mrs. Molien directly implicated the interests of Mr. Molien. The injury was not merely derivative of an injury to his spouse, i.e., indirect. Both Mr. and Mrs. Molien’s interests in harmonious relations with their spouses were impinged by the inherent influence of Kaiser’s misbehavior.” (Id. at p. 610, italics in original.)
The majority comment on Newton v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1986) 184 Cal.App.3d 386 [228 Cal.Rptr. 890], is curious. That court clearly understood that “the doctor-patient relationship with the wife directly implicated the interest of the husband: in Molien, misdiagnosis of a venereal disease directly implicated the sexual component of the marriage in which Mr. Molien obviously had an interest . . . .” (Id. at pp. 391-392.) The Newton court properly observed that the task of distinguishing bystanders *680from direct victims is the task of lower courts. It found a cause of action under Molien, supra, 27 Cal.3d 916, had been stated.
The majority next offer lengthy criticism of Ochoa v. Superior Court (1985) 39 Cal.3d 159 [216 Cal.Rptr. 661, 703 P.2d 1], Ochoa understood Molien clearly: “In Molien defendant’s misdiagnosis was, by its very nature directed at both the wife and the husband.” (Id. at p. 172.) However, the Ochoa court found in that case “the duty was owed to [the child’s mother] as a percipient witness, not as a direct victim of negligence.” (Id. at p. 173.) Such a holding was consistent with Dillon’s requirements, supra, 68 Cal.2d 728.
Finally, the majority recite a card catalogue list of law review articles and broadly label them “critical” of the foregoing opinions. A careful reading of many of the articles fails to confirm that characterization.
For example, the note in (1983) 18 U.S.F. L.Rev. 145, pointed out that some commentators completely misunderstood the Molien case. Yet the answer was simple: “It is clear that a plaintiff should be classified as a direct victim rather than a bystander if he or she was the one toward whom the negligent conduct was directed.” (Id. at p. 166.)
And the note in (1981) 33 Hastings L.J. 291, 312, declared that “The Molien rule involves nothing more than a return to basic tort principles.”
Nolan and Ursin in (1982) 33 Hastings L.J. 583, appropriately titled their article Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress: Coherence Emerging from Chaos. They wrote: “Molien convincingly demonstrates the superiority of seriousness, in comparison with the requirement of physical injury, as a safeguard against fraudulent claims in emotional distress cases.” (Id. at p. 610.)
The note in (1982) 18 Cal. Western L.Rev. 101, is hardly critical of the opinions of this court with which the majority now find fault. Said the author: “The court in Molien emphasized the fact that the plaintiff, Mr. Molien, was ‘himself a direct victim of the admittedly negligent act’—that is, Mr. Molien was required to undergo blood tests to determine whether he had contracted syphilis. The court contrasted that fact pattern with the ‘bystander scenario’ which applied to the Dillon facts.” (Id. at p. 112, fns. omitted.)
Some of the articles in the majority’s card index list not only support Dillon, supra, 68 Cal.2d 728, but recommend an expansion. For example, the test proposed in (1981) 54 So.Cal.L.Rev. 847, 867, is to allow “recovery *681for those types of emotional distress for which a reasonable person would be emotionally unprepared.”
The note, Dillon Revisited (1982) 43 Ohio St. L.J. 931, 940, contains a thoughtful discussion of psychological distress: “When first announced the requirement of physical manifestation was a proper limitation. It verified the severity of the emotional distress when medical science had not yet achieved sufficient sophistication to accomplish the task. With a better understanding of emotional responses, this need to show physical manifestation should diminish. The secondary responses basically are capable of objective verification. Thus, consistent with Molien, the issue should be one of proof that utilizes objective criteria.
“Once the court acknowledges that the issue is one of proof of emotional distress, it then must determine the type or degree of emotional distress that the law will recognize. Molien held that ‘some guarantee of genuineness’ of the evidence given should be required to sustain a claim. The court, however, was addressing only the issue of the evidence necessary to avoid a demurrer. Courts must set a standard that allows the fact finder to distinguish between compensable and noncompensable emotional distress.
“The Restatement (Second) of Torts [§ 46, com. j] suggests a possible starting point to begin this analysis. The following comment attempts to define actionable emotional distress:
“ ‘It is only when it is extreme that liability arises. Complete emotional tranquility is seldom attainable in this world, and some degree of transient and trivial emotional distress is part of the price of living among people. The law intervenes only when the distress is so severe that no reasonable man could be expected to endure it.’ ” (Italics in original, fns. omitted.)
In short, the majority’s broad generalization that commentators have been critical of the tort opinions of this court is unsupported when one goes beyond a superficial glance at the cited articles. For the most part, the authors understandably purported to distill the rules that should be applied to future fact situations. Some of their conclusions were sound, others dubious. That, of course, is not inconsistent with the function of law reviews: to stimulate legal thought.
I disagree with the majority opinion not merely for its conclusion—although I concur with Justice Broussard in that respect—but with its wholesale criticism of past opinions of this court and of the Courts of Appeal, some prevailing for three decades. Such callous disregard for the doctrine of stare decisis does not constructively serve the judicial process, nor does it *682contribute to the guidance of the bench and bar. As Justice Cardozo wrote in The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921) page 34, “Adherence to precedent must ... be the rule rather than the exception if litigants are to have faith in the even-handed administration of justice in the courts.”

 Dillon set forth three factors which the courts should “take into account” in determining whether the injury was “foreseeable”: (1) whether the plaintiff was “located near the scene of the accident,” (2) whether the emotional distress resulted “from the sensory and contemporaneous observance of the accident,” and (3) whether the plaintiff and the victim “were closely related. . . .” (68 Cal.2d at pp. 740-741.)

 Although Justice Mosk has penned a separate dissent, he expresses “general agreement” with Justice Broussard’s views and adds nothing to the Dillon analysis apart from an interesting sidelight on the short but eventful life oí Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 295 [29 Cal.Rptr. 33, 379 P.2d 513]. Accordingly, I have confined my critique to the majority opinion and the Broussard dissent.

 Other factors frequently cited but not considered dispositive in light of the insurmountable problem of formulating just and sensible limitations on liability include the fear of a proliferation of claims, the potential for fraudulent claims, the disproportionality between fault and liability, and the undue burden on the insurance system. (See, e.g., Stadler v. Cross, supra, 295 N.W.2d at p. 555, fn. 3; Tobin v. Grossman (1969) 24 N.Y.2d 609 [249 N.E.2d 419, 422]; see also Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co., supra, 59 Cal.2d at pp. 310-315.)

 It is curious that the majority refer to the concerns of insurers (maj. opn. pp. 647, 655). No insurance carrier is a party to this action.