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Graves v. Estabrook3/3/2003
g v. Takasaki, 520 P.2d 758, 766 (Haw. 1974). See generally, Annotation, 98 A.L.R.5th 609.
We thus recognize that unmarried cohabitants may have a close relationship, i.e., a "relationship that is stable, enduring, substantial, and mutually supportive . . . cemented by strong emotional bonds and provid a deep and pervasive emotional security." Dunphy, 642 A.2d at 380. In determining whether a relationship meets this standard, a court should
take into account the duration of the relationship, the degree of mutual dependence, the extent of common contributions to a life together, the extent and quality of shared experience, and . . . whether the plaintiff and the injured person were members of the same household, their emotional reliance on each other, the particulars of their day to day relationship, and the manner in which they related to each other in attending to life's mundane requirements. Id. at 378 (quotation omitted).
In this case, the plaintiff alleged in her complaint that she was engaged to the decedent and that they had lived together for seven years immediately preceding the accident. Construing all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, Minuteman, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 147 N.H. at 636, we conclude that it is reasonable to infer that in the course of their lengthy cohabitation the plaintiff and her fiancé enjoyed mutual dependence, common contributions to a life together, emotional reliance on each other and attended to life's mundane requirements together. We conclude that the pleadings are reasonably susceptible of a construction that would withstand a motion to dismiss.
Reversed and remanded.
BRODERICK and NADEAU, JJ., concurred; DALIANIS, J., with whom BROCK, C.J., joined, dissented.
DALIANIS, J. dissenting. Because I believe that the class of bystanders who may recover for negligent infliction of emotional distress should be limited to those closely related to the victim by marriage or blood, I respectfully dissent.
In Corso v. Merrill, 119 N.H. 647 (1979), we abandoned the "zone of danger" standard which barred recovery unless the plaintiff had been exposed to a risk of physical harm, and instead permitted bystander recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress premised upon a traditional test of foreseeability. Id. at 657. In expanding this cause of action, we recognized the need to permit recovery for a "plaintiff's serious emotional injury that is directly caused by defendant's negligence." Id. at 653. At the same time, however, "we recognized the need for a clearly-defined boundary to liability in this area . . . ." Nutter v. Frisbie Mem. Hosp., 124 N.H. 791, 795 (1984). This necessity arises because the liability of a negligent defendant to a bystander is largely derivative. Id. at 794. "The risks of indirect harm from the loss or injury of loved ones pervasive and inevitably realized at one time or another." Id. (quotation omitted). To recognize liability for all such harms, however, would impose "remote and unexpected liability" upon defendants in bystander cases. See Corso, 119 N.H. at 656. While it is difficult to determine the point at which the harm is no longer reasonably foreseeable to a defendant, " he fact that such a boundary is difficult to draw does not obviate the reasons for drawing it." Nutter, 124 N.H. at 795.
In establishing a clearly-defined boundary to liability, we must balance the need to compensate those plaintiffs whose injuries derive from the defendant's negligence with the need to avoid both infinite liability and uncertainty in the law. See Wilder v. City of Keene, 131 N.H. 599, 603 (1989). Thus, we have narrowly cons
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