Psychiatric Damages and Causation in New York Emotional Distress Claims

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Civil Psychiatric IME

In an emotional distress case, the plaintiff may be genuinely suffering and still present a contested psychiatric causation question. The issue is not simply whether anxiety, depression, grief, trauma symptoms, or functional loss exists. The issue is how much of that suffering the defendant’s conduct caused. New York recognizes emotional injury, but cautiously New York permits recovery for psychiatric injury in defined circumstances. The old physical-impact requirement was abandoned in Battalla v. State. Bystander recovery is limited by the zone-of-danger rule articulated in Bovsun v. Sanperi. Ferrara v. Galluchio recognized recovery for a medically grounded fear of disease. The common theme

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