{
  "id": 1582681,
  "name": "Eugene V. Swanson, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Arthur A. Swanson, Defendant-Appellee",
  "name_abbreviation": "Swanson v. Swanson",
  "decision_date": "1970-02-25",
  "docket_number": "Gen. No. 53,115",
  "first_page": "182",
  "last_page": "186",
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    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
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    {
      "cite": "37 Ill2d 494",
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      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
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        2866138
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:12:45.000190+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "Eugene V. Swanson, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Arthur A. Swanson, Defendant-Appellee."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "MR. PRESIDING JUSTICE STAMOS\ndelivered the opinion of the court.\nPlaintiff, Eugene Swanson, brought an action for damages against defendant, Arthur Swanson, for the intentional infliction of mental distress. Defendant\u2019s motion to strike the complaint for failure to state a cause of action was denied. At the close of plaintiff\u2019s evidence, defendant moved for a directed verdict which was granted. Plaintiff appeals.\nPlaintiff and defendant are brothers. Their mother, Emma Swanson, had resided with defendant for approximately six months during the early part of 1950, but had then moved to plaintiff\u2019s home pursuant to an agreement whereby each of the two brothers would care for their mother for six month intervals. She, however, continued to reside with plaintiff until February 11, 1961, when she was taken by plaintiff to defendant\u2019s residence. Plaintiff testified that he told defendant to care for the mother over the weekend while he and his wife left town to visit his mother-in-law. However, defendant as an adverse witness under Ill Rev Stats, c 110, \u00a7 60 (1967) testified that plaintiff stated, \u201cThat\u2019s your mother. We don\u2019t want to see her or you anymore.\u201d\nOn February 13, 1961, defendant placed his mother in the Sutton Nursing Home, Belvidere, Illinois, on the advice of Dr. Nelson who had allegedly examined her six months prior to this occurrence. Defendant gave the Home his telephone number to be used in case of emergency, but failed to give plaintiff\u2019s number.\nPlaintiff testified that after returning from the weekend trip, he attempted to take his mother back home, but defendant refused to tell him of her location. Plaintiff then traced his mother to the Home by making numerous phone calls. When he visited her at the Home, he failed to leave his telephone number.\nOn August 17, 1961, the mother died and the Home promptly notified defendant who made arrangements for the funeral on August 19, 1961. Defendant testified that he deliberately failed to inform plaintiff of the mother\u2019s death, and further, deliberately failed to cause an obituary to be published. Plaintiff learned of his mother\u2019s death five days after the funeral and allegedly, as a result of being unable to attend, suffered severe emotional distress. Plaintiff testified:\n\u201cI was shocked to hear that she had passed away. I was very nervous about it and had many sleepless nights. Kept thinking about it all the time. Yet to this day I think I am going to have nightmares of this situation.\u201d\nOPINION\nThe issue presented for review is whether the trial court properly granted defendant a directed verdict. The applicable standard is enunciated in Pedrick v. Peoria & Eastern R. Co., 37 Ill2d 494, 510, 229 NE2d 504:\n\u201c. . . verdicts ought to be directed and judgments n. o. v. entered only in those cases in which all of the evidence, when viewed in its aspect most favorable to the opponent, so overwhelmingly favors movant that no contrary verdict based on that evidence could ever stand.\u201d\nSince plaintiff seeks recovery for the intentional infliction of mental distress, the Pedrick test, supra, must be applied to the evidence in conformity with the precepts of Knierim v. Izzo, 22 Ill2d 73, 174 NE 157 (1961).\nIn Knierim, supra, the plaintiff sought recovery for the intentional infliction of severe mental distress allegedly caused by defendant\u2019s threats to kill her husband and the subsequent fulfillment of those threats. The court held that the complaint stated a cause of action and in so doing adopted this tort in Illinois for the first time. The cause of action, as enunciated therein, allows compensatory damages for the disturbance of mental equanimity where one, intending to cause \u201csevere emotional distress\u201d in another, acts in a manner \u201ccalculated to cause [it] in a person of ordinary sensibilities\u201d and, in so doing, actually precipitates it. In discussing what constitutes \u201csevere emotional distress\u201d the court stated at page 85:\n\u201cIt has not been suggested that every emotional upset should constitute the base of an action. Indiscriminate allowance of actions for mental anguish would encourage neurotic overreactions to trivial hurts, and the law should aim to toughen the psyche of the citizen rather than pamper it. But a line can be drawn between the slight hurts which are the price of a complex society and the severe mental disturbances inflicted by intentional action wholly lacking in social utility.\n\u201cThe stronger emotions when sufficiently aroused do produce symptoms that are visible to the professional eye. . . .\u201d\nThe only subsequent Illinois case construing conduct in light of the above tests was March v. Cacioppo, 37 Ill App2d 235, 185 NE2d 397 (1962). The plaintiff therein alleged that the defendants on the basis of a void or exorbitant judgment intentionally garnished plaintiff\u2019s bank account for a period of time including the Christmas season thereby causing severe emotional distress. In affirming a dismissal of the action, the court stated at page 243:\n\u201cWe do not believe that the distress which would be suffered by a person of ordinary sensitiveness from the facts related would be the severe mental disturbance contemplated by the Knierim decision.\u201d\nIn the instant case plaintiff testified that he was nervous and had many sleepless nights and he thought he was going to have nightmares about it. He did not receive nor seek medical aid for his condition. These circumstances do not show, as required by Knierim, a \u201csevere emotional disturbance.\u201d\nUpon this record, we find that the trial court properly directed a verdict and we therefore affirm the judgment.\nJudgment affirmed.\nDRUCKER and LEIGHTON, JJ., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "MR. PRESIDING JUSTICE STAMOS"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Asher, Greenfield, Gubbins and Segall, of Chicago (Irving D. Levin, of counsel), for appellant.",
      "Robert J. O\u2019Rourke and Donald A. Carr, of Chicago, for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "Eugene V. Swanson, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Arthur A. Swanson, Defendant-Appellee.\nGen. No. 53,115.\nFirst District, Fourth Division.\nFebruary 25, 1970.\nAsher, Greenfield, Gubbins and Segall, of Chicago (Irving D. Levin, of counsel), for appellant.\nRobert J. O\u2019Rourke and Donald A. Carr, of Chicago, for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0182-01",
  "first_page_order": 188,
  "last_page_order": 192
}