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Renville v. Fredrickson11/16/2004
Submitted on Briefs: January 26, 2004
This Court issued its original Opinion in this case on August 31, 2004. See Renville v. Frederickson , 2004 MT 239, 323 Mont. 503, ___ P.3d ___ ( Renville I ). Frederickson filed a Petition for Rehearing on September 15, 2004. Renville filed her Objections to the Petition for Rehearing on September 23, 2004. In her Petition, Frederickson raised an issue that was neither briefed nor argued in the original briefs submitted to this Court. While the failure to raise this issue initially on appeal would normally justify a summary denial of the Petition for Rehearing, we conclude that, in the interest of clarity and uniformity of case law, we must address the issue raised in the Petition, and affirm the District Court's ruling. On November 9, 2004, we issued an Order withdrawing our Opinion in Renville I . We replace it with this superseding Opinion .
Janice Renville (Renville) sued the Estate of Sherlee York Frederickson (Frederickson or the Estate) seeking damages for emotional distress and loss of consortium arising out of the death of Renville's adult son who was killed in an automobile accident while a passenger in a car driven by Frederickson. Renville appeals the District Court's Order granting the Estate's Motion for Summary Judgment. As indicated above, we affirm.
ISSUE
We restate the issue as follows: Did the District Court err in concluding that Renville's claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) and loss of consortium failed as a matter of law?
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On September 1, 2001, forty-four year old Gary Sorenson (Sorenson) died in an automobile accident. The car in which Sorenson was a passenger was driven by Sherlee York Frederickson (Frederickson). Frederickson also died in the accident.
The record is unclear on Sorenson's marital status at the time of his death, but we know he was survived by two children, numerous siblings, and his mother. His son, Jason Sorenson, was named Personal Representative of his father's estate. Jason prosecuted a wrongful death claim against Frederickson's estate. That action was settled in November 2001.
Sorenson's mother, Renville, learned of her son's death when a sheriff arrived at her home in the early morning hours of September 2, 2001, and notified her that Sorenson had died as a result of injuries sustained in the automobile accident. Renville reacted very emotionally. She began to scream and her body shook. She claims that she had to take tranquilizing medicine for several days and that six months after his death, she had no interest in her home and had repeated crying spells.
In March 2002, Renville filed suit against the Frederickson Estate, asserting that Frederickson's negligence had caused Sorenson's death. She sought damages for emotional distress and loss of consortium.
The Estate moved for summary judgment arguing that Renville's emotional distress claim failed as a matter of law because Renville's allegations of emotional distress did "not rise to the level set forth by the Montana Supreme Court as necessary to establish a claim for emotional distress." Additionally, the Estate maintained that Renville's loss of consortium claim must fail because Montana does not recognize a loss of consortium claim for the death of an adult child. The District Court agreed and, in January 2003, granted Frederickson's Motion for Summary Judgment. Renville appeals.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
Summary judgment is proper only when no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of
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