Also known as: mental suffering · emotional distress · IIED · emotional harm · mental anguish
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Severe mental anguish or emotional upset resulting from another party’s wrongful conduct.
Nurse Carter told fragile ICU patient Maurice Marshall that a fatal medication error had just occurred and would likely recur that night. Marshall suffered a stress-induced arrhythmia requiring extended hospitalization. The nurse’s deliberate targeting of Marshall’s known phobia produced the severe distress that directly caused the bodily harm.
Members of a church group picketed Mason McCarthy’s military funeral on public land with signs expressing political and moral views about government policy. McCarthy’s family experienced intense grief and outrage. Because the speech addressed matters of public concern and remained peaceful, no tort liability arose despite the severe emotional distress.
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After Miles Montgomery ended his engagement to Madison Meyers, she sued for breach of promise to marry in a jurisdiction retaining the action. Meyers proved expenditures made in preparation for the wedding plus resulting mental anguish and reputational harm. Recovery was permitted for those elements of damage.
Melissa Mills sought a protective order excluding her spouse from the family home. She presented evidence that continued cohabitation would cause further emotional harm. The court granted the exclusion upon the required showing of likely emotional injury.
Maya Malik watched her husband being subjected to extreme and outrageous conduct by a third party. The conduct was intended to cause severe emotional distress and Malik was present when it occurred. Liability attached for the distress she suffered as an immediate family member.
A defendant committed a battery against Maurice Marshall that caused only transient pain. Marshall sought recovery solely for resulting emotional distress. No separate liability arose for the distress standing alone as the only legal consequence of the conduct.
Damages for emotional disturbance are not ordinarily allowed in breach of contract. Recovery is permitted only when the breach also causes bodily harm or when the contract or breach is of a kind that serious emotional disturbance was a particularly likely result, such as contracts involving carriers, innkeepers, or disposition of dead bodies.
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The defendant must engage in extreme and outrageous conduct that intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress. Liability extends to resulting bodily harm when the distress produces physical injury.
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Speech on matters of public concern receives special protection even when it causes severe emotional distress. Peaceful, non-disruptive picketing accompanied by offensive signs is protected and tort liability is barred absent additional unprotected conduct.
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Liability extends to a member of the immediate family who is present at the time if the actor intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress, whether or not bodily harm results.
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Conduct that is tortious because intended to cause bodily harm or invade another legally protected interest does not create liability for emotional distress that is the sole legal consequence of the conduct.
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…v. Falwell , 485 U.S. 46 (1988), to be precisely on point. There, we found that the use of a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress to impose liability for the publication of a satirical critique violated the First Amendment. There was no doubt that Virginia’s tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress was “a…