Saunders v. Nemati

• Decision Date: 21 September 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-587.,89-587.
• Citation: 580 A.2d 660
• Parties: Deloris M. SAUNDERS, Appellant, v. Massoud NEMATI, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

580 A.2d 660

Deloris M. SAUNDERS, Appellant, v. Massoud NEMATI, Appellee.

No. 89-587.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Submitted June 5, 1990.

Decided September 21, 1990.

Paris A. Artis, Hyattsville, Md., for appellant.

Joseph Montedonico, Washington, D.C., and Patricia M. Tazzara, Rockville, Md., for appellee.

Before STEADMAN and FARRELL, Associate Judges, and PRYOR, Senior Judge.

STEADMAN, Associate Judge:

Appellant Saunders filed a complaint against appellee Dr. Nemati alleging in essence that appellee used "extremely outrageous and abusive language to plaintiff which was calculated to and did cause plaintiff extreme emotional distress."¹ The only issue presented on this appeal is whether the count of intentional infliction of emotional distress² was properly dismissed for failure to bring the action within the period required by our statute of limitations, D.C.Code § 12-301 (1989). The complaint was filed approximately fifteen months after the last of the acts complained of. We reverse.

A

The specific issue before us is whether a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress is governed by the one-year limitation "for libel, slander, assault, battery, mayhem, wounding, malicious prosecution, false arrest or false imprisonment," D.C.Code § 12-301(4), or by the general three-year residuary provision applicable to causes of action "for which a limitation is not otherwise specially prescribed." Id. § 12-301(8).

The traditional common law refused all remedy for mental distress unless it could be brought within the scope of some already recognized tort. "If some independent tort, such as assault, battery, false imprisonment, or seduction could be made out, the cause of action served as a peg upon which to hang the mental damages and recovery was freely permitted." W. KEETON, D. DOBBS, R. KEETON, D. OWEN, PROSSER AND KEETON ON THE LAW OF TORTS § 12, at 57 (5th ed. 1984) (footnotes omitted). However, "somewhere around 1930, it began to be recognized that the intentional infliction of mental disturbance by extreme and outrageous conduct constituted a cause of action in itself." Id. at 60. The independent existence of such a tort is now well established, both in the District, see Clark v. Associated Retail Credit Men, 70 App.D.C. 183, 186, 105 F.2d 62, 65 (1939); Waldon v. Covington, 415 A.2d 1070, 1076 (D.C.1980) (tracing history); see also Williams v. Baker, 572 A.2d 1062, 1064 (D.C.1990) (en banc) (negligent infliction of emotional distress), and in American jurisprudence generally. See RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS § 46 (1965). Therefore, by an ordinary plain reading of our statute of limitations, this distinct cause of action is not included in section 12-301(4) or any other particularized subsection and therefore falls within the residuary subsection (8).

Nonetheless, the principal assertion on appeal is that in actions for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the applicable statute of limitations is properly determined by the nature of the underlying acts. Here, it is said, the claim is best characterized as one for assault and hence subject to the one-year statute of limitations.

B

It is well settled that in a determination of the applicable statute of limitations, the plaintiff's characterization of the claim is not controlling. Thus, in Morfessis v. Baum, 108 U.S.App.D.C. 303, 281 F.2d 938 (1960), the court looked to the substantive elements of the alleged cause of action and concluded that the complaint stated a case of malicious prosecution, which was barred by the one-year statute of limitations, rather than abuse of process, despite the contrary assertion in the complainant's caption. "The action thus pleaded cannot ... be removed from its place in the law of torts by calling what occurred also an abuse of process." Id. at 305, 281 F.2d at 940. Accord, Maddox v. Bano, 422 A.2d 763, 765 (D.C.1980) (complaint held to plead "in substance a cause of action for assault, battery, false arrest" and not negligence despite complaint's use of negligence label); Kelton v. District of Columbia, 413 A.2d 919, 922 (D.C.1980) (complaint alleged battery and negligence, but "elements of alleged offense" set forth only battery).

At times, indeed perhaps frequently, as the early history of the development of the tort discussed above indicates, damages for emotional distress will in substance simply be an element of some other cause of action. Thus, in certain cases where intentional infliction of emotional distress was included among a number of alleged torts, the one-year statute of limitation has been applied where the nature of the action rested on the other torts and the emotional distress aspect of the claim was essentially an outgrowth of the other pleaded torts. This appears to have been the situation in Hanoch Tel-Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic, 517 F.Supp. 542 (D.D.C.1981), aff'd on other grounds, 233 U.S. App. D.C. 384, 726 F.2d 774 (1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1003, 105 S.Ct. 1354, 84 L.Ed.2d 377 (1985), the case cited by the trial court in its brief order of dismissal. That action arose out of an alleged terrorist attack on a bus in Israel, in which twenty-nine people died. The plaintiffs were certain individuals injured in the attack and the personal representatives of the twenty-nine persons killed in the attack. The plaintiffs alleged the torts of "assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and/or intentional infliction of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Id. at 550. The court granted the motion to dismiss on all counts, stating that "clearly, the torts alleged ... are dependents of the same personal interests infringed by the intentional torts that would be subject in the District of Columbia to the one year limitation period." Id. A similar analysis may be applied to two other cases cited by appellee: Thomas v. News World Communications, 681 F.Supp. 55, 73 (D.D.C.1988) (plaintiffs' claim for emotional distress "is thus completely dependent upon and `intertwined' with their claims for libel, defamation, and assault and/or battery"), and de la Croix de Lafayette v. de la Croix de Lafayette, 117 Daily Wash.L.Rptr. 2133, 2138 (D.C.Super.Ct. Aug. 14, 1989) (the "underlying tort of plaintiff's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress is an assault and battery").³ Conversely, in Burda v. National Association of Postal Supervisors, 592 F.Supp. 273 (D.D.C.1984), aff'd, 248 U.S.App.D.C. 415, 771 F.2d 1555 (1985), where the plaintiff sought damages for fraud, conspiracy, tortious interference with a contractual relationship, and intentional infliction of emotional distress (as well as for certain constitutional violations), the court applied a three-year statute of limitations, rather than the claimed one-year period, to the emotional distress tort because the claim "is intertwined with claims which fall within the three-year limitation." Id. at 281. Accord, Rochon v. FBI, 691 F.Supp. 1548, 1562 and n. 19 (D.D.C.1988).

The situation is different in the case before us. We deal with a dismissal of the action and therefore look only to the allegations of the complaint.⁴ We apply the familiar doctrine that "the complaint must be construed in the light more favorable to the plaintiff and its allegations taken as true." McBryde v. Amoco Oil Co., 404 A.2d 200, 202 (D.C.1979) (per curiam).⁵ So viewed, the claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress is pled as a clear and distinct tort stemming from the verbal abuse by the defendant, with the alleged harm set forth as the "extreme emotional, psychological and physical distress and discomfort" suffered by the plaintiff.⁶ The only other count contained in the complaint, Count I, involved medical malpractice, based upon the delay in rendering care and verbal abuse by appellee. Medical malpractice is not a distinct cause of action for statute of limitations purposes, but instead depends upon the underlying acts. See Canterbury v. Spence, 150 U.S.App.D.C. 263, 284, 464 F.2d 772, 793, cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1064, 93 S.Ct. 560, 34 L.Ed.2d 518 (1972). Consequently, the verbal abuse would be subsumed within the acts constituting intentional infliction of emotional distress and governed by the same limitations period and the negligence element governed by the residuary three-year statute of limitation period.⁷ Thus, on the face of the complaint here, there were no other causes of action with distinct limitation periods so as arguably to constrict the time period otherwise applicable to an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

C

It is asserted, however, that even if the count of intentional infliction of emotional distress is viewed in isolation, the one-year statute of limitations in section 12-301(4) should be read to encompass all intentional torts⁸ or, at least, an intentional tort as closely related to an enumerated tort as the intentional infliction of emotional distress alleged here is to the enumerated tort of assault.

The first argument sweeps too broadly. It is true that the relevant language of our current statute of limitations can be traced back at least to 1901,⁹ Act of March 3, 1901, ch. 854, § 1265, 31 Stat. 1189, 1389, at which time no independent tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress was recognized. However, even at that time, not all recognized intentional torts were subject to a one-year limitation. For instance, actions for injury to realty or personalty or for recovery of personal property expressly bore a three-year limit, id., as they do to this day. D.C.Code § 12-301(2), (3). In Morfessis, supra, it was assumed that the tort of abuse of process was governed by the three-year residuary provision, rather than the one-year provision of section 12-301(4). 108 U.S.App.D.C. at 304, 281 F.2d at 939. Nor have section 12-301(4) or its predecessors ever been applied to the intentional torts of fraud,...