Opinion

Kazatsky v. King David Memorial Park, Inc.

  • 515 Pa. 183
  • 527 A.2d 988
  • 1987 Pa. LEXIS 734
Court
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Filed
Jun 15, 1987
Status
Published
Author
Hutchinson
On the bench
Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, McDermott, Hutchinson, Zappala, Papadakos
Cited by
302 cases

reasoning that, given the advanced state of medical science, it is “unwise and unnecessary to permit recovery to be predicated on an inference based on the defendant's ‘outrageousness’ without expert medical confirmation that the plaintiff actually suffered the claimed distress.”

How later courts described this case

  • reasoning that, given the advanced state of medical science, it is “unwise and unnecessary to permit recovery to be predicated on an inference based on the defendant's ‘outrageousness’ without expert medical confirmation that the plaintiff actually suffered the claimed distress.”
  • stating that “it is unwise and unnecessary to permit recovery to be predicated on an inference based on the defendant’s ‘outra-geousness’ without expert medical confirma tion that the plaintiff actually suffered the claimed distress”
  • concluding absence of expert medical testimony that plaintiff suffers from emotional distress precludes plaintiff from recovering on intentional infliction of emotional distress theory
  • noting that “[t]he principle adopted in [Papieves] was derived from Restatement (First) of Torts § 868 (1939), which provides for liability to a decedent’s family member for the wanton mistreatment or intentional withholding of that decedent’s corpse.”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

CONCURRING OPINION

HUTCHINSON, Justice,

concurring.

I concur in the result. I do not believe the new intentional tort proposed by Section 46 of Restatement of Torts 2d, *201 with its undefined parameters, has any place in either Pennsylvania precedent or policy.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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