Johnson v. Superior Court

The issue presented in the present proceeding is whether petitioner has pleaded (or can plead) a valid cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress in a medical malpractice action resulting from the stillbirth of her child.

Petitioner’s first amended complaint pleads two causes of action. The first, for personal injuries resulting from real party’s alleged medical malpractice, claims damages for physical injuries to herself for shock to her nervous system and for injuries to her emotional health. She also pleads a separate cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress based upon the death of the fetus. In this cause of action petitioner alleges that she was a maternity patient at the real party hospital, that she was negligently and carelessly permitted to remain in labor for over 24 hours “with ruptured membranes” and without definitive treatment, that she “felt and perceived her then unborn viable fetus die within her body” and as a result of the sensory perception of the death of the fetus, petitioner suffered profound shock and emotional trauma.

Real party demurred to the second cause of action. Respondent sustained the demurrer…