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Belcher v. T. Rowe Price Foundation Inc.3/25/1993
ed that the mind is very often directly and necessarily affected by physical injuries. A nervous shock, without a blow to the person, might, under some circumstances, be so great as to cause bodily injury.
100 F. at 748. We have set out Green in such detail because it is much cited, quoted and relied upon in our
opinions.
Harris, 121 Md. 254, 88 A. 282, was a case which looked to Green in holding that there can be injuries from fright without physical impact. The injury in Harris was the result of a fall caused by the shock and fright produced by the sudden loud blowing of a locomotive whistle and escape of steam. Hobbs, 129 Md. 9, 98 A. 239, was another Green -based case. A woman in a hospital bed was harassed by a debt collector to the extent that she went into shock. She was so mentally disturbed that she suffered convulsions. The convulsions caused severe hemorrhaging so that the surgery which had been performed on her had to be performed again. The court held that the loan company was liable for all of her injuries. Twenty-two years after Green, we decided Roch, 160 Md. 189, 153 A. 22. The manager of a grocery store, as a joke, sent Roch a package containing a dead rat. She alleged that when she saw the rat, instead of the loaf of bread she had been expecting, she
became very sick and ill in body and mind, fainted and fell with great force to the floor, and as a result thereof her nervous system suffered and still is suffering excruciating physical pain and mental anguish and other injuries were then and there sustained by her.
Id. at 191, 153 A. 22. The Court flatly declared:
Under the decisions of this Court damages may be recovered for physical injuries caused by fright or shock.
Id. The Court cited to Green, Kemp, Harris and Hobbs.
Bowman, 164 Md. 397, 165 A. 182, nourished the seed planted in Green. Williams was at home, his wife was in
the kitchen and his two children were in the basement. From a window in the front of the house, Williams saw a large truck loaded with coal coming down a steep icy hill. Out of control, the truck crashed into the stone foundation of the side of the house. Williams did not sustain any physical impact nor did the violent jar to the house cause him to fall.
The fright of the plaintiff and his alarm for the safety of his two young sons occasioned by this accident were, however, such a shock to his nervous system that he fell to the floor of the dining room immediately after the impact of the truck with the fabric of the house, and was carried into the kitchen in a weak and hysterical condition. The doctor was sent for, and the plaintiff remained in bed for two weeks under regular medical treatment.
164 Md. at 399, 165 A. 182. Williams was unable to work for six months.
From a state of normal health, [Williams] immediately became and continued quite weak and nervous, as was manifested to his family physician and an expert consultant in nervous disorders, by tangible evidence not susceptible of simulation, and by the absence of any physical reason for his condition.
Id. The Court observed that "the primary effect upon the personality of [Williams] was the fright it caused him, since his person was untouched. . . ."
Id. at 401, 165 A. 182. The Court opined:
In fright a man's whole being reacts. The shock to his nervous system is reflected in instinctive excitement and intensive action of the muscles and organs of the body, and so it is clear that the mental state has a corresponding physical accompaniment, although there has been no impact suffered. "The fear's as bad
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