For more than half a century there has been a slow but steady trend to allow certain individuals to sue for emotional stress when witnessing the death or serious injury of another within the "zone of danger." A key factor had always been whether that person is considered a member of the "immediate family."

In the late 1800s a person could not sue for "fright" unless that person actually sustained personal injury. By the 1930s, the Court of Appeals in Comstock v. Wilson, 257 N.Y. 231 (1931), "required that a plaintiff be physically impacted in order to recover," but "recognized that damages for a 'mental disturbance' might be recoverable where the 'fright' or 'nervous shock' is produced by a concurrent physical impact. (See id. at 237-239)."