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Stott v. Mody

Plaintiffs' claims for emotional distress arising out of defendant's attempt to collect a debt were barred by their prior suit against defendant's employer for the same conduct which resulted in a defense judgment.

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Alice Stott and her daughter, Alice E. Barley, bring this appeal from the trial court’s grant of Anatrai Mody’s motion for summary judgment in the suit filed against him by Stott and Barley. Because we find that the trial court correctly granted the motion, we affirm the judgment below.

The record shows that Stott and Barley filed an action in the Superior Court of Bryan County against First Card Services, Inc. and The First National Bank of Chicago. They alleged that Mody, a collector employed by the defendants, had telephoned their home seeking to collect the delinquent balance on a credit card account, and had left a threatening message on their answering machine.1 The plaintiffs claimed that the threatening message had caused mental suffering and emotional anguish and had frightened them so that they made drastic changes in their lives. They sought compensatory and punitive damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, and negligent supervision. The action was removed to federal district court by the defendants, where they answered and moved for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion after reviewing the standards applicable to such a claim under Georgia law, finding that Mody’s conduct “did not meet the requisite level of outrageousness necessary for an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim. A reasonable person could not find the conduct outrageous enough to recover under the tort.” The district court also found that “the distress inflicted was not so severe that a reasonable person could not endure it” and that “a reasonable person could endure the stress created by the answering machine message.” The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment.

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