Section 8 Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress Requires Breach of a Legally Recognized Duty

• Library: Damages 2012

Recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress requires that the defendant owe the plaintiff a legally recognized duty. Thornburg v. Fed. Express Corp., 62 S.W.3d 421 (Mo. App. W.D. 2001). In Thornburg, the plaintiff’s wife had an affair with her supervisor. Id. at 427. When he discovered the affair, the wife’s employer offered her a lateral transfer out of the state. She accepted the transfer and moved out of state with their children. The plaintiff then sued his wife’s employer and her former supervisor, alleging negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The court, however, dismissed the plaintiff’s negligent infliction of emotional distress claim because he did not allege that his wife’s employer or her former supervisor owed him any legally recognized duty.

A common carrier owes its passengers a duty to protect them against “insults and indignities.” Henson v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 257 S.W.3d 627, 629 (Mo. App. W.D. 2008). In Henson, the plaintiff alleged that, after she was a passenger on a...