Huggins v. Longs Drug Stores California, Inc.

Opinion

BAXTER, J.

In filling a prescription for plaintiffs’ two-month-old son, defendant pharmacy wrote directions for five times the dosage ordered by the doctor. Plaintiffs seek to hold the pharmacy liable for their emotional distress from having unwittingly injured their son by administration of the overdose. As is typical in suits for negligent infliction of emotional distress involving family relationships and medical treatment (see Burgess v. Superior Court (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1064, 1071 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 615, 831 P.2d 1197] [hereafter Burgess]), plaintiffs initially urged both a “bystander”…