Breeden v. League Services Corp.,

[David A. Szwak]

Breeden v. League Services Corp.,
575 P.2d 1374, 1978 OK 27, Okla., March 07, 1978



Debtor sued collection companies to recover damages for mental anguish allegedly suffered as the result of harassing and threatening collecting tactics used by the collection companies. The District Court, Oklahoma County, Harold C. Theus, J., rendered summary judgment for collection companies and debtor appealed. The Supreme Court, Davison, J., held that where the collection companies mailed three letters to the debtor at her home address, mailed three letters to the debtor at her place of employment, made several attempts to contact the debtor by telephone, both at home and her place of employment, the debtor's own estimate of the number of attempts made at her place of employment was about 16, the collection companies had only one telephone conversation with the debtor, in which she was called a God damned liar and deadbeat, and all calls were made during reasonable hours, the collection companies' conduct was not so outrageous in character as to give rise to a cause of action against them.
Affirmed.
Williams and Simms, JJ., dissented.

Where collection companies mailed three letters to debtor at her home address, mailed three letters to debtor at her place of employment, made several attempts to contact debtor by telephone, both at home and her place of employment, debtor's own estimate of the number of attempts made at her place of employment was about 16, collection companies had only one telephone conversation with debtor, in which she was called a God damned liar and deadbeat, and all calls were made during reasonable hours, collection companies' conduct was not so outrageous in character as to give rise to a cause of action against them for intentional infliction of emotional distress.