Outrage

Outrage is recognized to be a tort for which a victim can sue to recover damages. It is a type of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In West Virginia this cause of action recognized in Syllabus Point 6 of Harless v. First National Bank in Fairmont, 169 W.Va. 673, 289 S.E.2d 692 (1982):

One who by extreme and outrageous conduct intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another is subject to liability for such emotional distress, and if bodily harm to the other results from it, for such bodily harm.

Many courts have held that intentional misconduct involving the disposition of corpses can create a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress:

Tarar v. Pakistan Int'l Airlines, 554 F. Supp. 471 (S.D. Tex. 1982) (delay in transporting body); Meyer v. Nottger, 241 N.W.2d 911 (Iowa 1976) (funeral director lied concerning order in which plaintiff's father and stepmother had died, need for sealer casket, and appearance of body; and refused to comply with the plaintiff's request to delay the funeral procession, thereby preventing the plaintiff from viewing the interment); Golston v. Lincoln Cemetery, Inc., 573 S.W.2d 700 (Mo.Ct.App. 1978) (decedent buried without vault in shallow grave so that body was uncovered by passage of heavy machinery); Papieves v. Lawrence, 437 Pa. 373, 263 A.2d 118 (1970) (withholding body and burying without authorization); Johnson v. Woman's Hospital, 527 S.W.2d 133 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1975) (hospital placed body of premature infant who died shortly after birth in bottle of formaldehyde and displayed it to the mother weeks later when she inquired as to its disposition). See also Corrigal v. Ball & Dodd Funeral Home, Inc., 89 Wash. 2d 959, 577 P.2d 580 (1978) (en banc) (complaint stated cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress where it alleged that funeral home failed to provide urn and decedent's mother handsifted plastic bag full of ashes believing the remains to be packing material).