Riddle v. Buncombe Cty. Bd. of Educ.Â, 256 N.C. App. 72

In July 2011 at T.C. Roberson High School, varsity coach James Beatty authorized team members (all minors) to use a John Deere utility vehicle without training.
During a practice/drill, teammate Roderick Brown drove the John Deere at an unsafe speed and struck teammate Donald Crotty, causing severe head/brain injuries; Nicholas Riddle narrowly avoided being hit.
Riddle alleges he witnessed Crotty’s injury and suffered severe emotional distress requiring treatment; he sued Buncombe County Board of Education, Beatty (individual/official), and Brown (individual/official) for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED).
Defendants moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6); the trial court granted the motion for failure to state a claim, finding plaintiff’s severe emotional distress not reasonably foreseeable.
On appeal, the sole legal question was whether Riddle sufficiently alleged that defendants’ negligence foreseeably caused severe emotional distress either to him personally or as a bystander to Crotty’s injuries.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Riddle pleaded NIED based on fear for his own safety	Riddle claims he narrowly avoided being struck and thereafter experienced severe emotional distress	Defendants contend temporary fright is not the ‘‘severe emotional distress’’ required for NIED	Dismissed — allegations of momentary fear are insufficient to show severe emotional distress
Whether Riddle pleaded bystander NIED from witnessing Crotty’s injury (friend/teammate)	Riddle alleges he contemporaneously observed the injury, was a friend/teammate known to defendants, and suffered continuing severe distress requiring treatment	Defendants argue no allegation shows an unusually close relationship or defendant knowledge of any peculiar susceptibility, so distress was not reasonably foreseeable	Dismissed — relationship and foreseeability allegations insufficient to establish proximate cause for bystander NIED

Johnson v. Ruark Obstetrics & Gynecology Assocs., P.A., 327 N.C. 283 (establishes standard for pleading NIED and that mere temporary fright is inadequate)
Ruark v. (same as Johnson) cited above, 327 N.C. 283 (foreseeability and severe emotional distress standard; bystander factors)
Sorrells v. M.Y.B. Hosp. Ventures of Asheville, 334 N.C. 669 (discusses factors for bystander claims and that listed factors are not mechanistic requirements)
Gardner v. Gardner, 334 N.C. 662 (foreseeability limitation on emotional-distress recovery)
Andersen v. Baccus, 335 N.C. 526 (examples of bystander recovery in close familial contexts)
Stanback v. Stanback, 297 N.C. 181 (Rule 12(b)(6) pleading standard)
Wrenn v. Byrd, 120 N.C. App. 761 (requires proof of defendant’s knowledge of plaintiff’s peculiar susceptibility where injury would not be caused to a person of normal sensitivity)