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Reid v. Pierce County9/3/1998
Oral Argument Date: 05/27/98
Source of Appeal: Appeal from Superior Court of King County Docket No: 96-2-23835-0 Judgement or order under review Date filed: 02/10/97 judge signing: Hon. William L. Downing
En Banc
In these consolidated cases, we are asked to decide whether Plaintiffs may maintain a cause of action against Pierce County (County) and its employees for appropriating and displaying to others photographs of corpses of Plaintiffs' deceased relatives. Plaintiffs allege negligent infliction of emotional distress, tort of outrage, violation of their rights of privacy guaranteed by the state constitution, and common law invasion of privacy. We hold the Plaintiffs may maintain an action for common law invasion of privacy and reverse the trial court's order of summary Judgement entered against them on that issue.
We decline to hold, however, that any of the Plaintiffs have colorable claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress, tort of outrage, or violation of their constitutional rights of privacy under article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution. Insofar as the trial court entered summary Judgement for the County or granted the County's motion under CR 12(b)(6) on those claims, we affirm.
FACTS
Reid v. Pierce County
Karen Reid is the niece of, now deceased, former Governor Dixie Lee Ray. The Reid complaint alleges that for a period of at least 10 years employees of the Pierce County Medical Examiner's office appropriated autopsy photographs of corpses, showing them at cocktail parties and using them to create personal scrapbooks. Specifically, the Reids allege photographs of former Governor Ray's corpse were personally possessed by Bruell, an employee of the Medical Examiner's office.
The Reids became aware of the appropriation and use of the autopsy photographs through the press. Certain newspapers reported that attorneys for the County used Bruell's appropriation of autopsy photographs against him to obtain a more favorable settlement for the County in an employment discrimination suit.
The Reid complaint alleges the appropriation and use of the autopsy photographs of former Governor Ray subjects the County to liability for tort of outrage, common law invasion of privacy, and violates the Plaintiffs' state and federal constitutional right to privacy. The superior court granted the County's CR 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. Hyde-Lucas v. Pierce County; Hyde v. Pierce County
Jacquie Hyde is the widow of former Tacoma Mayor Jack Hyde. Cynthia Hyde-Lucas and Laura Hyde are the former Mayor's daughters. They also brought suit against the County on the same bases asserted by the Reids. Their complaints were dismissed after the County succeeded in obtaining summary Judgement against them.
Vaughan v. Pierce County
In the early 1980s, Roberta Vaughan died of an apparent drug overdose. At the time of her death, William Barnes took six Polaroid photographs of Ms. Vaughan at either the scene of her death or at the Medical Examiner's office. These photographs were placed in the Medical Examiner's records and files. After Barnes' employment with the Medical Examiner's office ended, he learned the office was microfilming files and destroying photographs. The Vaughans allege Barnes was given permission to obtain the photographs from cases he worked on, including the six pictures of Roberta Vaughan. Barnes admits he showed those pictures to persons with whom he worked at his new job at Pierce County Public Works. Barnes did not have permission from Betty Vaughan (Roberta's mother) to show the ph
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