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Bock v. County of Los Angeles12/22/1983
COURT OF APPEAL OF CALIFORNIA, SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION FIVE
Civ. No. 66916
1983.CA.40041 ; 197 Cal. Rptr. 470; 150 Cal. App. 3d 65
December 22, 1983
LOREN BOCK, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLANT,
v.
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, DEFENDANT AND RESPONDENT
Superior Court of Los Angeles County, No. C369063, Arthur Baldonado, Judge.
Buckley & Webb and Marguerite M. Buckley for Plaintiff and Appellant.
John H. Larson, County Counsel, Donald K. Byrne, Chief Deputy County Counsel, and John W. McCauley, Deputy County Counsel, for Defendant and Respondent.
Opinion by Feinerman, P. J., with Stephens and Hastings, JJ., concurring.
Feinerman
Plaintiff, Loren Bock (Bock), appeals from an order of dismissal entered after the demurrer by defendant, County of Los Angeles (County), to her first amended complaint was sustained without leave to amend.
In reviewing an appeal from an order of dismissal following the sustaining of a demurrer, the court must treat all contentions as true and must assume that all facts pled can be proven. (Alcorn v. Anbro Engineering, Inc. (1970) 2 Cal. 3d 493, 496 [86 Cal. Rptr. 88, 468 P.2d 216].)
The plaintiff's complaint alleges the following facts: She states that her husband, Alton Bock, was the victim of a hit and run accident on June 14, 1980. He was taken to a hospital and died there within a few hours. Alton Bock's body was then transported to the Los Angeles County morgue. The State of California identified the decedent as Alton Bock on or about June 23, 1980, and notified defendants County and City of Los Angeles. Plaintiff alleges, "Defendant County negligently failed to identify the remains of decedent Alton Bock, and failed to promptly notify the plaintiff of their custody and identification." Bock claims she was in constant contact with the city and county during the period between June 17, 1980 and July 15, 1980, the date on which decedent's remains were released to her. She states she provided information, including dental records, and requested information in an effort to determine the whereabouts of her husband.
Bock's complaint attempts to set forth two causes of action. First, as a result of defendant's negligence, plaintiff claims she suffered severe mental and emotional distress and consequent physical illness. Second, she alleges that defendant negligently breached its duties of due care and reasonable behavior toward her in the investigation and search for her husband, causing her severe mental and emotional distress and consequent physical illness. This purported second cause of action, breach of a duty of due care to plaintiff, is a necessary element of plaintiff's first cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress, and we shall therefore discuss both causes of action together.
California courts have allowed recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress when the tortfeasor has breached a duty which was owed to the plaintiff. In Molien v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (1980) 27 Cal. 3d 916 [167 Cal. Rptr. 831, 616 P.2d 813, 16 A.L.R.4th 518], defendant hospital incorrectly diagnosed plaintiff's wife as having syphilis. It was held that defendant doctors and hospital not only breached a duty of care to their patient, but also
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