Personal Injury Law

Fraud By Sacramento Nursing Facility Leads To Elder Abuse Lawsuit, Part 7 of 11

By Moseley Collins, Esq.

(Please note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this elder abuse/wrongful death case and its proceedings.)

PLAINTIFFS' FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION STATES CLAIMS FOR RECKLESS OR INTENTIONAL INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS AS TO STEVEN BROWN

The elements of the tort are: (1) extreme and outrageous conduct by the defendant with the intention of causing, or reckless disregard of the probability of causing, emotional distress; (2) the Claimant's suffering severe or extreme emotional distress; and (3) actual and proximate causation of the emotional distress by the defendant's outrageous conduct. KOVR-TV, Inc. v. Superior Court (1995) 31 Cal. App.4th 1023, 1028, 37 Cal.Rptr.2d 431.

The tort does not require an allegation of an intention to cause harm. A reckless disregard of the probability of causing harm is adequate. [I]t is not essential to liability that a trier of fact find a malicious or evil purpose. It is enough that defendant "devoted little or no thought" to the probable consequences of his conduct. KOVR-TV, Inc., supra, 31 Cal.App.4th at 1031-1032.

Whether conduct is outrageous is a question of fact for which the law does not provide a bright line rigidly separating that which is actionable from that which is not. Indeed, it generally hazards a case-by-case appraisal of conduct filtered through the prism of the appraiser's values, sensitivity threshold, and standards of civility. The process evoked by the test appears to be more intuitive than analytical. Yurick v. Superior Court (1989) 209 Cal.App.3d 1116, 1128.

Full post as published by Sacramento Injury Lawyer Blog on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).