Cesena v. Gray, No. CA08-830.
Plaintiff worked for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield under the supervision of Derrick Flowers (plaintiff’s immediate supervisor) and defendant (Flowers’ supervisor). According to the complaint, Flowers repeatedly threatened physical violence towards plaintiff. When plaintiff sought assistance from defendant, defendant was also threatening to plaintiff. Defendant later terminated plaintiff for dishonesty and told others that he was dishonest, incompetent, and crazy. Defendant moved for summary judgment, which the trial court granted.
On appeal, the Arkansas Court of Appeals reviewed the complaint to determine whether plaintiff’s allegations could support an outrage claim. The tort of outrage requires plaintiff to prove that (1) defendant intended to inflict emotional distress or knew or should have known that emotional distress was likely, (2) the conduct was extreme and outrageous, beyond all possible bounds of decency, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community, (3) defendant’s actions caused plaintiff’s emotional distress, and (4) plaintiff’s emotional distress was so severe that no reasonable person would be expected to endure it. The court then held that none of the actions cited in plaintiff’s complaint rose to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct.
