Heiner v. Moretuzzo

The question before us is whether Ohio law currently recognizes the right of a plaintiff to maintain a cause of action for negligent infliction of serious emotional distress where the defendant’s negligence produced no actual threat of physical harm to the plaintiff or any other person. The trial court and court of appeals answered this question in the negative. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

We begin our discussion with an overview of the scope and limitations of the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Historically, the law in this…