INDIANAPOLIS — A ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court has expanded the limited number of people who are eligible to recover damages in lawsuits alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that in a 3-2 decision released Dec. 22, Indiana's high court said it's now allowing a parent or guardian to seek damages from a child caretaker when the parent or guardian discovers, with irrefutable certainty, that the caretaker sexually abused their child and that abuse severely impacted the parent or guardian's emotional health.
The new rule arose from a case involving a disabled child who was sexually assaulted in 2015 and 2016 by an instructional assistant responsible for the child's care in the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township in Indianapolis.
According to documents detailing the high court's decision, the instructional assistant confessed two years. She later pleaded guilty to child molesting and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
In 2019, the child's mother sued the instructional assistant, the school and the school district for the emotional distress she suffered as a result of the abuse to her daughter. Documents say after the assaults the child began suffering from sleeplessness and night terrors and she became combative toward her caregivers.
The mother alleged that the emotional distress she suffered ultimately compromised her ability to care for her daughter and forced her to pay to place her daughter in a chronic care facility.
Lower courts dismissed her case because her claims didn’t fit any of the categories for which damages for emotional distress can be pursued, according to the Associated Press.
However, after reviewing her case, the Indiana Supreme Court decided there should be an expansion to the limited number of people who can recover damages in cases like this one.
The high court also ordered the mother be allowed to proceed to trial against the defendants in her case.
