Huggins v. Longs Drug Stores California, Inc.
Supreme Court of California
862 P.2d 148 (1993)
Barbie and Robert Huggins (plaintiffs) took their two-month-old son to a pharmacy operated by Longs Drug Stores (Pharmacy) (defendant), which mistakenly wrote out a prescription for five times the dosage their doctor ordered, causing injury to the child; the parents sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The court of appeal rejected a bystander recovery theory (since the parents hadn't witnessed the suffering directly) but allowed a direct-victim theory to proceed, reasoning a pharmacist should owe a duty of care to a parent or caregiver known to be administering medicine to an infant patient. The Pharmacy appealed.
Whether, in order to recover damages as a direct victim of a pharmacist's negligent dosage instructions, a plaintiff must have been the patient for whom the medicine was prescribed.