## Facts

- After a school play, Sylvia Star and Sandra Rabello engaged in a physical fight at the school.
- Lisa Rabello, Sandra’s minor daughter, witnessed the altercation; Star knew Lisa was present.
- Sandra Rabello sued Star for assault and battery and sought special, general, and punitive damages.
- Rabello, as guardian ad litem for Lisa, also sued Star for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) based on Lisa’s emotional and physical reaction to witnessing the fight.
- Star counterclaimed for assault and battery, asserting Rabello started the fight.
- The trial court found Star precipitated the fight, credited Rabello’s account as corroborated by disinterested witnesses, dismissed Star’s counterclaim, and awarded damages to Rabello on assault and battery.
- The trial court also awarded Lisa $300 in general damages for IIED; Lisa’s claimed effects included embarrassment, intermittent headaches, sleeplessness, and upset stomach.

## Issues

1. Whether a minor who witnesses a fight involving her mother may recover for bystander IIED when the defendant knew the child was present, but the conduct and resulting distress are not shown to be extreme.

## Decision

- The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for Sandra Rabello on assault and battery.
- The court reversed the $300 judgment in favor of Lisa Rabello on the bystander IIED claim.
- The court recognized IIED as a tort in Nevada but held Lisa’s evidence did not satisfy the elements for recovery on these facts.

## Legal Principles

- IIED requires: (1) extreme and outrageous conduct intended to cause, or done with reckless disregard of causing, emotional distress; (2) severe or extreme emotional distress; and (3) actual or proximate causation.
- A third-party bystander may recover for IIED in limited circumstances, typically when the bystander is a close relative of the person at whom the conduct is directed and the defendant is aware of the bystander’s presence.
- In bystander cases, the “extreme and outrageous” threshold is applied strictly; recovery is more likely when the witnessed conduct is violent and shocking.
- Embarrassment and relatively moderate physical complaints, without proof of severe or extreme distress, are insufficient to support IIED.

## Conclusion

Nevada adopted IIED and acknowledged potential bystander liability, but reversed a child’s IIED award for witnessing her mother’s fight at school because the event was not sufficiently extreme and the child’s distress was not shown to be severe.


Star v. Rabello, 97 Nev. 124, 625 P.2d 90 (Nev. 1981)