Marcia G. Samms, Plaintiff and Appellant v. David Eccles, Defendant and Respondent

Summary

The Utah Supreme Court recognized a standalone cause of action for severe emotional distress unaccompanied by bodily impact or physical injury, available where the defendant intentionally engaged in conduct with the purpose of inflicting such distress, or where any reasonable person would have known it would result, and the conduct was outrageous and intolerable under generally accepted standards of decency and morality. Treating the dismissal below like a demurrer, the court held that the plaintiff's allegations of persistent late-night telephone solicitations for illicit sex and an indecent exposure sufficiently disclosed facts that could fall within this test, so the trial court erred in dismissing; ordinary sexual solicitation, however, remains nonactionable ('there is no harm in asking'). Justice Callister, joined by Justice Henriod, dissented: while agreeing with the majority's statement of the law, he would have held the complaint deficient because it showed only a moral, not a legal or actionable, wrong.