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CLOHESSY v. BACHELOR5/21/1996
ively by the plaintiff's subjective complaints"); Leong v. Takasaki, 55 Haw. 398, 408,
520 P.2d 758 (1974) (serious emotional distress may properly be found where reasonable person "`normally constituted, would be unable to adequately cope with the mental stress engendered by the circumstances'"); Folz v. State, 110 N.M. 457, 470, 797 P.2d 246 (1990) (illogical to require "as a threshold element the presence of physical injury to manifest the emotional trauma induced by the contemporaneous sensory perception of the death or physical injury of a close loved one"); Sorrells v. M.Y.B. Hospitality Ventures of Asheville, 334 N.C. 669, 672, 435 S.E.2d 320 (1993) ("plaintiff must show an `emotional or mental disorder, such as, for example, neurosis, psychosis, chronic depression, phobia, or any other type of severe and disabling emotional or mental condition which may be generally recognized and diagnosed by professionals trained to do so'"); Paugh v. Hanks, supra, 78 ("serious emotional distress may be found where a reasonable person, normally constituted, would be unable to cope adequately with the mental distress engendered by the circumstances of the case"); Sinn v. Burd, supra, 168 (in agreement with Leong court); Boyles v. Kerr, 855 S.W.2d 593, 598 (Tex. 1993) (" e also are not imposing a requirement that emotional distress manifest itself physically to be compensable"); Heldreth v. Marrs, supra, 188 W. Va. 490 ("Serious emotional distress which results from witnessing a closely related person critically injured or killed can be, in some cases, as debilitating and as severe as a physical injury. More importantly, serious emotional distress can be diagnosed even in the absence of any physical manifestation, and can be proven with medical and psychiatric evidence."); Culbert v. Sampson's Supermarkets, Inc., 444 A.2d 433, 438 (Me. 1982) ("proof of physical manifestations of the mental injury is no longer required"); Bowen v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., supra, 183 Wis.2d 653 (plaintiff "need not prove physical manifestation of severe emotional
distress"). "Serious emotional distress, of course, goes well beyond simple mental pain and anguish. Compensation for mental pain and anguish over injury to a third person should only be allowed where the emotional injury is both severe and debilitating. . . . A non-exhaustive list of examples of serious emotional distress includes neuroses, psychoses, chronic depression, phobia and shock." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Lejeune v. Rayne Branch Hospital, supra, 556 So.2d 570.
To summarize, we conclude that a bystander may recover damages for emotional distress under the rule of reasonable foreseeability if the bystander satisfies the following conditions: (1) he or she is closely related to the injury victim, such as the parent or the sibling of the victim; (2) the emotional injury of the bystander is caused by the contemporaneous sensory perception of the event or conduct that causes the injury, or by arriving on the scene soon thereafter and before substantial change has occurred in the victim's condition or location; (3) the injury of the victim must be substantial, resulting in his or her death or serious physical injury; and (4) the bystander's emotional injury must be serious, beyond that which would be anticipated in a disinterested witness and which is not the result of an abnormal response.
The allegations of the third count of the complaint seeking damages for bystander emotional distress fall within the reasonable foreseeability rule subject to the limitations we have delineated. From the allegations in the third count, a fact finder reasonably could conclude that Clohessy and Liam were close
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