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CLOHESSY v. BACHELOR5/21/1996
ly related to Brendan, that their emotional injury was caused by the contemporaneous sensory perception of the defendant's alleged negligence, that Brendan died as a result of the defendant's alleged negligence, and that the emotional distress of Clohessy and Liam was severe. We conclude that
the allegations of the third count of the complaint allege a cause of action for bystander emotional distress, a cause of action that we recognize.
II
The defendants argue that if we adopt a cause of action for bystander emotional distress, it should be applied prospectively only because they were not put on notice that we would recognize such a duty. Traditionally, however, in cases of civil tort liability in which new causes of action are recognized, the new theory of liability is applied to the parties in the case. See Bohan v. Last, supra, 236 Conn. 670; Hopson v. St. Mary's Hospital, supra, 176 Conn. 485.
Moreover, this cause of action was clearly foreshadowed. Although in Strazza v. McKittrick, supra, 146 Conn. 714, this court stated that a bystander, under the facts of that case, could not recover, the statement is dictum with respect to this case. The plaintiff in Strazza did not meet all of the conditions that we have concluded are necessary for a defendant to be liable to a bystander. Furthermore, our decision in Amodio v. Cunningham, supra, 182 Conn. 80, decided fourteen years before the events in this case occurred, wherein we discussed Dillon v. Legg, supra, 68 Cal.2d 728, at length, contained language that was sufficient to put the defendants on notice that bystander emotional distress was not foreclosed in Connecticut. Finally, the trial courts> of this state, prior to the events of this case, had recognized an action for bystander emotional distress. See, e.g., Glendening v. Weis, 41 Conn. Sup. 165, 560 A.2d 995 (1988); see also Kearney v. Philips Industries, Inc., 708 F. Sup. 479, 483 (D. Conn. 1989) ("Several judges of the Connecticut Superior Court have ruled on bystander emotional distress claims in accident situations
not involving medical malpractice. The majority of these judges have refused to strike such claims from the complaint, applying the three criteria of Dillon . . . ."). Accordingly, we reject the defendants' claim that the cause of action for bystander emotional distress should be applied prospectively only and conclude that it has full application to this case.
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.
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