Concurrence Kaufman Chief judge Malcolm M. Lucas | Date decided 1989 | |
Full case name Maria E. Thing v. James V. La Chusa Citation(s) 48 Cal.3d 644771 P.2d 814257 Cal.Rptr. 86557 USLW 2671 Prior action(s) 233 Cal.Rptr. 911 (1987) (reversed) Associate Judges Majority Eagleson, joined by Lucas, Panelli, Arguelles Similar Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v, Summers v Tice, Garratt v Dailey, Winterbottom v Wright, Brown v Kendall | ||
Thing v. La Chusa, 48 Cal. 3d 644 (1989), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of California that limited the scope of the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress. The majority opinion was authored by Associate Justice David Eagleson, and it is regarded as his single most famous opinion and representative of his conservative judicial philosophy.
Contents
Factual background
John Thing, a minor and son of plaintiff Maria Thing, was injured when he was struck by a car driven by James La Chusa. The plaintiff was close by, but did not see or hear the accident. The plaintiff's daughter informed her of the accident, and when the plaintiff arrived on the scene she saw her bloody and unconscious son and suffered emotional distress as a result. The trial court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment and the plaintiff appealed.
Majority opinion
In an effort to limit a potential runaway tort and to avoid the burdensome case by case analysis warned of in Dillon v. Legg, the court refined the necessary elements of a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress first enunciated in Dillon:
Based on the strict formulation of the second element, the court ruled that the plaintiff could not recover because she was not present at the scene and not aware of the injury at the time of the accident.
Kaufman's concurrence
Justice Kaufman's concurrence criticized both the rigid rules of the majority opinion and the flexible guidelines advocated by Justice Broussard's dissent. Kaufman bemoaned the guidelines of Dillon v. Legg as hopelessly arbitrary, and advocated a return to the zone of danger rule as enunciated in Amaya v. Home Ice, Fuel & Supply Co.
Mosk's dissent
Justice Mosk's dissent voiced substantial agreement with Broussard's dissent, but also made a point of criticizing the majority's perspective on precedent. Mosk noted that a long list of California cases, including Archibald v. Braverman, Krouse v. Graham, Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, and State Rubbish Association v. Siliznoff evidenced an enduring theme of expanding tort liability for emotional distress.
Broussard's dissent
Justice Broussard's dissent criticized the rigid rules imposed by the majority decision as arbitrary and something that inevitably lead to undercompensation for real emotional distress injuries. Instead of bright line rules, Broussard advocated that liability be determined by an application of the well developed tort principles of foreseeability and duty.