No Bystander Claim For Emotional Distress When There Is No Contemporaneous Perception That Defective Product Caused Injury.

Plaintiff brought an action after she suffered emotional distress upon witnessing the death of her brother while they were scuba diving off the coast of Catalina Island.  At the time of the accident, plaintiff thought her brother had a heart attack, but later learned that a plastic flow-restriction insert had become lodged in decedent’s second stage regulator preventing him from getting enough air to breathe underwater. The trial court granted summary judgment.  The appellate court affirmed, noting that plaintiff did witness the injury, but did not meaningfully comprehend that the company’s defective product caused the injury.  Fortman v. Forvaltningsbolaget Insulan AB (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 3; January 10, 2013) (As Mod. February 7, 2013) 212 Cal.App.4th 830.