149 Ohio St. 301 - Bartow v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 2 district · 29 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The early cases refused all remedy for mental injury, unless it could be brought within the scope of some already recognized tort. Thus it was held that mere words however violent, threatening or insulting, did not constitute an assault, and hence afforded no ground for redress. * * * But if some independent tort, such as assault, battery, false imprisonment, or seduction could be made out, tlie cause of action served as a peg upon which, to hang the mental damages, and recovery was freely permitted. Such ‘parasitic’ damages were the entering wedge. “It has gradually become recognized that there is no magic inherent in the name given to a tort, or in any arbitrary classification, and that the infliction of mental injury may be a cause of action in itself. Its limits are as yet ill defined, but it has been extended to its greatest length in the case of international acts of a flagrant character, whose enormity adds especial weight to the plaintiff’s claim, and is in itself an important guarantee that the mental disturbance which follows is serious and not feigned * # *. “So far as it is possible to generalize from the cases, the rule which seems to be emerging is that there is liability for conduct exceeding' all bounds usually tolerated by society, of a nature which is especially calculated to cause and does cause mental damage of a very serious kind.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Lyons v. Zale Jewelry Co.

2. ““It is axiomatic that opprobrious epithets, even if malicious, profane, and in public, are ordinarily not actionable. There is no right to recover for bad manners.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Meier v. Novak