December 1996
December 1996
In Clohessy v. Bachelor, 237 Conn. 21, 675 A.2d 852 (1996), the Connecticut Supreme Court joined the growing number of jurisdictions that have recognized a cause of action for bystander emotional distress upon witnessing an injury to another.
The court set forth four conditions that a plaintiff must satisfy to state a cause of action under Connecticut law: (1) he or she is closely related to the injury victim, such as the parent or the sibling of the victim; (2) the emotional injury of the bystander is caused by the contemporaneous sensory perception of the event or conduct that causes the injury, or by arriving on the scene soon thereafter and before substantial change has occurred in the victim's condition or location; (3) the injury of the victim must be substantial, resulting in his or her death or serious physical injury; and (4) the bystander's emotional injury must be serious, beyond that which would be anticipated in a disinterested witness and which is not the result of an abnormal response. (Fred Shackelford, Senior Attorney, Personal Injury)
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