Gardner v. Gardner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

33 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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “25. As Defendant Brown approached the players who were walking and then struck Donald Crotty, Plaintiff Nicholas A. Riddle narrowly avoided being struck by the John Deere while still in close proximity to Donald Crotty, and experienced fear, terror and severe emotional distress for his own safety and the safety of the other football players. ... 27. Plaintiff witnessed the injuries to Crotty from being struck by [the] John Deere vehicle, experienced severe emotional distress at that time, and the Plaintiff has in fact since continued to suffer since the event from the type of severe emotional distress recognized and diagnosed by professionals trained to do so, and has required care, treatment, therapy and medications from medical and mental healthcare providers as a proximate result thereof. 28. Plaintiff and Donald Crotty were both personally known to Defendants Beatty and Brown as fellow teammates and friends; Plaintiff was physically present in the immediately [sic] vicinity of, and contemporaneously observed, Defendants' negligent acts and the resulting injuries to Donald Crotty; and, Defendants Beatty and Brown knew or reasonably should have foreseen that their negligence and resulting injury to Donald Crotty would cause ... the severe emotional distress suffered by Plaintiff Nicholas A. Riddle, and that Plaintiff would be susceptible thereto.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 256 N.C. App. 72 - Riddle v. Buncombe Cty. Bd. of Educ. · 151 N.C. App. 139 - Estate of Hendrickson Ex Rel. Hendrickson v. Genesis Health Venture, Inc.

2. “[T]he “factors to be considered” include, but are not limited to: (1) “the plaintiffs proximity to the negligent act” causing injury to the other person, (2) “the relationship between the plaintiff and the other person,” and (3) “whether the plaintiff personally observed the negligent act.” However, such factors are not mechanistic requirements the absence of which will inevitably defeat a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress .... [T]he question of reasonable foreseeability under North Carolina law “must be determined under all the facts presented, and should be resolved on a case-by-case basis by the trial court and, where appropriate, by a jury.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 256 N.C. App. 72 - Riddle v. Buncombe Cty. Bd. of Educ. · Hickman by and Through Womble v. McKoin

3. “Plaintiff was not, however, in close proximity to, nor did she observe, defendant’s negligent act. At the time defendant’s vehicle struck the bridge abutment, plaintiff was at her mother’s house several miles away. This fact, while not in itself determinative, unquestionably militates against defendant’s being able to foresee, at the time of the collision, that plaintiff would subsequently suffer severe emotional distress as a result of his accident. Because she was not physically present at the time of defendant’s negligent act, plaintiff was not able to see or hear or otherwise sense the collision or to perceive immediately the injuries suffered by her son. Her absence from the scene at the time of defendant’s negligent act, while not in itself decisive, militates against the foreseeability of her resulting emotional distress.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 142 N.C. App. 267 - Fox-Kirk v. Hannon