Is sueing for mental anguish worth the fight?
Question Details:
There was an explosion in a business behind my mother's house and now she is living and fear. She has had to go to the hospital twice already with anxiety and fright. She had not been like this before the incident.
What you are describing is a claim for "negilgent infliction of emotion distress." Texas law does not recognize such a claim. In your mother's situation, a claim for emotional distress (or mental angish) must have been the result of some physical injury.
In the situation you describe, it is almost impossible to recover for mental anguish. The legal system typically only allows recover for mental suffering of one sort or another if--
1) There are physical injuries, too.
2) The mental or emotional suffering was inflicted deliberately (this is usually a stalking sort of situation)
3) The mental or emotional suffering is the result of being near a loved one who was killed in an accident or assault.
Unless these situations exist, you generally cannot recover for purely mental suffering
