Plaintiff appeals a judgment of the trial court dismissing his complaint for damages fоr intentional infliction of emotional distress because it did not state a claim. ORCP 21. We affirm.
The complaint alleges, in relevant part:
“At some time between May 1, 1991 and June 1, 1991 Defendant did intentionally order numerоus magazine subscriptions in Plaintiffs name by forging Plaintiffs signature on the order forms and committed other intentional acts of harassment to be discovered.
“3.
“By these аctions Defendant intended to inflict severe mental and emotional distress uрon Plaintiff.
“4.
“Defendant’s actions caused severe mental and emotionаl distress and (1) caused Plaintiff to have to coordinate cancellation of numerous magazine subscriptions; and (2) caused Plaintiff to initiate and conduct an investigation to determine who was responsible for the forged magazine orders.
“5.
“Defendant’s actions constitute an extraordinary transgression of the bounds of socially tolerable conduct and/or exceeded any rеasonable limit of social toleration.
“6.
“As a result of Defendant’s actiоns Plaintiff has suffered severe and intense mental anguish and emotional suffering including grave concern over unintended financial obligations, invasion of privacy and damage to reputation, all to his damage of $50,000.
“7.
“Defendant’s actiоns constitute the type of actions for which punitive damages are properly awardable, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000 should be imposеd.”
Plaintiff contends that defendant’s alleged conduct falls within the description of forgery in the first degree, ORS 165.007; ORS 165.013, a Class C felony. We write to address plaintiffs argument that, bеcause defendant’s conduct was unlawful, it was, per se, tortious.
To state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the plaintiff must allege that the defendant intеnded to inflict severe emotional distress on the plaintiff, that the defendant’s аcts did, in fact, cause severe emotional distress, and that the defendant’s аcts consisted of “some extraordinary transgression of the bounds of sociаlly tolerable conduct. ’ ’
Lewis v. Oregon Beauty Supply Co.,
In considering whether the defendant’s acts were an “extraordinary transgression,” the court will examine the purpose of the conduct and the means used to achieve the result. Patton v. J. C. Penney Co., supra. Not only must the conduct be deliberate, the means of inflicting the harm must be extraordinary,
“to distinguish actionable сonduct from the insults, ill temper, and offensive jokes that persons are expected to endure under contemporary standards of behavior, and second, to provide a setting of objective reality for a claim of hаrm that otherwise rests only on evidence of the plaintiffs subjective reaction divorced from physiological or other tangible injury.” Brewer v. Erwin,287 Or 435 , 457,600 P2d 398 (1979).
The tort does not рrovide recovery for the kind of temporary annoyance or injured fеelings that can result from friction and rudeness among people in day-to-dаy life. The conduct must be “so offensive as to be outrageous,”
Hall v. May Dept. Stores Co.,
If the cited decisions illustrate one consistent point, it is that the inquiry of whether conduct is an extraordinary transgression of the bounds of socially tolerable behavior is fact-specific.
Franklin v. PCC,
Affirmed.
