Tort Negligence Liability For Mental Harm In Pima
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The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress has four elements: (1) the defendant must act intentionally or recklessly; (2) the defendant's conduct must be extreme and outrageous; and (3) the conduct must be the cause (4) of severe emotional distress.
These legal elements include a professional duty owed to a patient, breach of duty, proximate cause or causal con- nection elicited by a breach of duty, and resulting in- juries or damages suffered. 1 These 4 elements apply to all cases of negligence regardless of specialty or clin- ician level.
Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress In such cases, the party who wants to pursue an emotional distress claim must demonstrate that the defendant owed them a duty of care, breached that duty, and the breach resulted in severe emotional harm.
In claims of negligently inflicted psychiatric illness, the plaintiff's reaction to a traumatic event is usually measured against a standard of normal susceptibility and disposition. This measurement is used to determine the question of whether the defendant should have reasonably foreseen the plaintiff's injury.
In Arizona, a plaintiff in a negligent infliction of emotional distress action must witness an injury to a closely related person, suffer mental anguish manifested as physical injury, and be within the zone of danger. Pierce v. Casas Adobes Baptist Church, 162 Ariz. 269, 272, 782 P.
The tort of intentional infliction of mental suffering goes by many names - intentional infliction of emotional harm, intentional infliction of emotional distress and so forth. Basically, this tort involves intentionally causing severe emotional harm to another individual.
Most civil lawsuits for injuries allege the wrongdoer was negligent. To win in a negligence lawsuit, the victim must establish 4 elements: (1) the wrongdoer owed a duty to the victim, (2) the wrongdoer breached the duty, (3) the breach caused the injury (4) the victim suffered damages.
Identifying the Four Tort Elements The accused had a duty, in most personal injury cases, to act in a way that did not cause you to become injured. The accused committed a breach of that duty. An injury occurred to you. The breach of duty was the proximate cause of your injury.