## Facts

- Debra Agis worked as a waitress at a restaurant owned by Howard Johnson Company and managed by Roger Dionne.
- The manager called a meeting of the waitresses and stated there was theft but the responsible person was unknown.
- The manager announced he would fire the waitresses in alphabetical order until the thief was found, starting with the letter “A.”
- The manager immediately fired Agis because her surname began with “A.”
- Agis alleged she became greatly upset, cried, suffered severe emotional distress and mental anguish, and lost wages and earnings.
- Agis alleged the defendants’ conduct was extreme and outrageous, reckless or intentional, and done with knowledge that emotional distress would likely result.
- Her husband alleged loss of consortium based on her emotional distress.

## Issues

1. Whether a plaintiff may recover for intentional or reckless infliction of severe emotional distress absent physical injury.
2. Whether the complaint sufficiently alleged extreme and outrageous conduct, causation, and severe emotional distress to survive dismissal.
3. Whether a spouse may recover loss of consortium based on the other spouse’s actionable severe emotional distress without accompanying physical injury.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts reversed the dismissal entered on the defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion.
- The court held that liability may exist for severe emotional distress intentionally or recklessly caused by extreme and outrageous conduct, even without bodily harm.
- The court held the complaint’s allegations were sufficient at the pleading stage to state such a claim.
- The court held the husband’s loss of consortium claim could proceed if the wife could prove the underlying emotional-distress tort.

## Legal Principles

- A defendant is liable for emotional distress when the defendant, without privilege, engages in extreme and outrageous conduct that intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress, even if no physical injury results.
- The required showing includes: intent or recklessness as to emotional harm; extreme and outrageous conduct; causation; and severe emotional distress.
- “Extreme and outrageous” conduct functions as a limit on liability; ordinary indignities and minor hurt feelings are not compensable.
- Serious emotional injury can support a spouse’s loss of consortium claim when the underlying emotional-distress claim is otherwise actionable.

## Conclusion

Massachusetts recognized an independent tort for intentional or reckless infliction of severe emotional distress without a physical-injury prerequisite, and it permitted a derivative loss of consortium claim based on that emotional injury, reversing dismissal and allowing the case to proceed.


Agis v. Howard Johnson Co., 371 Mass. 140, 355 N.E.2d 315 (Mass. 1976)