Funny the things you come across sometimes. I'm researching a little assignment where I have to address an element of the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress (as opposed to intentional infliction). This Ohio appeals court case isn't directly on point but it's kind of morbidly amusing:
On December 21, 1995, Sam Beshara arrived at appellant's funeral home for the calling hours of his wife, Connie Beshara, who had died of cancer. Upon approaching his wife's casket, he noticed that another deceased woman was in the casket dressed in his wife's clothing. A relative noticed that Connie Beshara's body was in a casket in a room where different calling hours were occurring. Connie's daughter, Cynthia Beshara Audia, approached the family of the other woman and informed them that the bodies had been switched. To convince that family, Cynthia removed the hat from her mother's head to reveal an identifying scar.
In the meantime, Sam was throwing chairs around the funeral home. When he learned that Connie's body was in another room, he entered that room and attempted to lift her body out of the casket. Thereafter, funeral home employees removed the two caskets from the rooms and placed the bodies in their proper caskets and clothes. Neither family was charged for the cost of the funerals.
On July 10, 1997, Sam and Cynthia filed suit against the funeral home alleging intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress; they later dismissed the intentional infliction claim. The funeral home stipulated that their conduct was negligent. The case proceeded to a jury trial in September 1998. After the close of plaintiff's evidence and again at the close of all evidence, the funeral home asked for a directed verdict. The funeral home argued that a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress requires the plaintiff to have been a bystander to an accident or to have been placed in fear of an actual physical peril. They also argued that there was no evidence that Cynthia suffered severe emotional distress and that Sam had preexisting problems which caused distress that would not have been suffered by "a normal person reasonably constituted." The court denied the motion for directed verdict and submitted the case to the jury. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding $ 75,000 to each.
In order to recover under Ohio law, "a plaintiff in a negligent infliction suit must have been a bystander to an accident or have been placed in fear of actual physical injury." Since there was no accident, the Besharas argued placement in fear of actual physical injury, on account of Sam Beshara going bananas when he learned of the body switch, but the court here wasn't buying it.
They also tried to get the court to import a dead body exception from other cases (a footnote in another Ohio case, in particular) which would have expanded the grounds for recovery under negligent infliction of emotional distress, but the court here declined to do that either, since it couldn't find any consonant authority in the state supreme court cases. So the jury verdict was tossed out and the appeals court found in favor of the funeral home.
Emotional distress
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