Court Opinion

ID: 9542575
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:36:02.197028+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:21.430972
License: Public Domain

Young, J.,
dissenting:
While I agree with the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Springer, I write separately because I am disturbed by the majority’s casual adoption of a radical and unprecedented expansion in the scope of potential NIED liability.
In State v. Eaton, 101 Nev. 705, 710 P.2d 1370 (1985), we first allowed bystander NIED recovery by adopting the California Supreme Court’s reasoning in Dillon v. Legg, 441 P.2d 912 (Cal. 1968). As my dissenting colleague points out, this cause of action has heretofore been subject to strict limitations. Although the majority pays lip service to these limitations, it ultimately eschews them in favor of a much less restrictive foreseeability test. It seems to me that under the majority opinion, NIED damages will be recoverable — or claimed — as a matter of course in virtually every personal injury action; I can hardly think of a case in which it is not foreseeable that an injured person will have a close friend or relative who may suffer severe emotional distress at the sight of a loved one’s suffering.
Thus, in only thirteen years, by judicial decision alone, we have created what is in effect a new and extremely broad field of litigation. I can think of no other area in which the law has changed so rapidly in the absence of legislative action.
Moreover, I believe that the majority’s decision today will have far-reaching policy ramifications. By effectively eliminating the restrictions which Eaton and Dillon place on the NIED cause of action, I fear that the majority lays the foundation for an exponential proliferation in the number of NIED claims brought in Nevada. It seems likely that this will, in turn, apply significant *766upward pressure on personal injury settlement values and, consequently, liability insurance rates. A policy change of this magnitude ought to be made through legislative processes rather than judicial ones. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.