Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

June 13, 2025

No intentional infliction of emotional distress when the plaintiff was left at bus stop by bus driver.

A woman who was left at a bus stop in the cold by a bus driver did not state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In Williams v. Holt, No. M2024-01188-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 1, 2025), the plaintiff was waiting at a bus stop on a November morning without a coat. When the next bus for that station pulled up, it initially pulled into a different bay because the correct bay was blocked. After seeing the plaintiff, the driver pulled to the correct bay, opened the doors, and said, “Come on, now.” The plaintiff asked the driver to lower to the steps for her, at which point the driver closed the doors and left plaintiff. The plaintiff expressed her concerns at the customer service desk, where a worker said she would file a complaint for the plaintiff. The plaintiff boarded the next bus twenty-six minutes after the previous bus left the plaintiff. The plaintiff later learned that the worker never filed a complaint.

The plaintiff filed this case pro se, asserting a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress (“IIED”) against the bus driver and customer service representative who failed to file a complaint. She also alleged negligent infliction of emotional distress (“NIED”) against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, who she alleged employed the driver and worker. The trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants on all claims, which was affirmed on appeal.

January 18, 2024

Pushing the Proximity Envelope in NIED Claims

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association, has published my latest Day on Torts column. The article discusses a recent opinion of the Tennessee Court of Appeals discussing the proximity element of negligent infliction of emotional claims.

Enjoy!

January 8, 2024

Parents’ negligent infliction of emotional distress claim based on sexual abuse of minor daughter dismissed.

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Where plaintiffs’ minor daughter was sexually abused by a church staff member, but plaintiffs did not perceive any injury-producing event, dismissal of their negligent infliction of emotional distress claim was affirmed.

In Doe v. Bellevue Baptist Church, No. W2022-01350-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 7, 2023), plaintiffs brought various claims against defendant church related to their minor daughter being sexually abused by a church staff member, including a claim on their own behalf for negligent infliction of emotional distress (“NIED”). Defendant moved to dismiss this claim, arguing that the complaint never alleged that plaintiffs witnessed or perceived an injury producing event. The trial court agreed and granted the motion to dismiss, and dismissal was affirmed on appeal.

Calling the law surrounding NIED claims “murky and difficult,” the Court of Appeals noted that when a plaintiff does not witness the actual injury-producing event, he or she must show:

March 20, 2020

Attorney not liable for advising client to make true police report

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Where an attorney advised her client in a family law case that her husband’s actions in distributing a video of the client having sex with another man might be criminal and advised the client to make a true report to the police department, the attorney was not liable for any tort.

In Pagliara v. Moses, No. M2018-02188-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 20, 2020), husband and wife were married, but at some time before the marriage yet while they were dating, wife “used Ecstasy and engaged in sexual relations” with another man “and videotaped their encounter.” After husband and wife were married, the wife of the other man on the video found the video and forwarded it to husband, along with a photograph of a sexual nature. Husband received this information while he was on a business trip in California, and he proceeded to forward a part of the video as well as the photo “to close friends of him and wife.”

August 2, 2017

Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress Claim Against Hospital Goes to Jury

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

In Henderson v. The Vanderbilt University, No. M2016-01876-COA-R9-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 31, 2017), the Court of Appeals overturned summary judgment on a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim, holding that “the alleged failure of the defendant hospital to provide care to the plaintiffs’ daughter, despite repeated assurances from the hospital that it would occur, constitutes an injury-producing event that was witnessed by plaintiffs.”

Plaintiffs brought their 10-year-old daughter to defendant hospital for septic shock related to the flu. She was admitted to the pediatric ICU on March 23, 2013, and given fluids and other medicines, but “no central line was placed; no echocardiogram was performed; no one called for a cardiology consult.” On the morning of March 24^th, plaintiffs “witnessed their daughter go into cardiac arrest.” Plaintiffs were escorted out of the room while defendant spent two hours performing CPR. After the cardiac arrest, plaintiffs allege that the child’s condition deteriorated, and during a procedure on April 4^th, she suffered a stroke and was ultimately pronounced brain dead. Care was withdrawn the child passed away on April 5^th.