Civil Model Jury Charge 3.30F INTENTIONAL
INFLICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS
The plaintiff is (also) bringing an
action based on intentional infliction of emotional distress allegedly caused
by the defendant.[1] To recover, plaintiff must establish the
following elements:
First,
the plaintiff must prove that the defendant acted intentionally or
recklessly. For an intentional act to
result in liability, the defendant must intend both to do the act and to
produce emotional distress. For a
reckless act to result in liability, a defendant must act in deliberate
disregard of a high degree of probability that emotional distress will
follow.
Second, the defendant’s conduct must be
extreme and outrageous. The conduct must
be so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all
possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly
intolerable in a civilized community.
The liability clearly does not extend to mere insults, indignities, threats,
annoyances, petty oppressions or other trivialities.
Third, the defendant’s actions must
have been the proximate cause of plaintiff’s emotional distress.[2]
Fourth, the emotional
distress suffered by plaintiff must be so severe that no reasonable person
could be expected to endure such distress.[3] Defendant’s conduct must be sufficiently
severe to cause genuine and substantial emotional distress or mental harm to
the average person.[4] This average person must be one similarly
situated to the plaintiff.[5] The plaintiff cannot recover for his/her
emotional distress if that emotional distress would not have been experienced
by an average person.[6]
