Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Tort In Mississippi

To justify a finding that this tort has occurred, the defendant's conduct must be "wanton and wilful and it would evoke outrage or revulsion." Leaf River Forest Products, Inc. v. Ferguson, 662 So. 2d 648, 659 (Miss. 1995). Among the kind of actions that have been found to evoke such outrage were a plot by a girlfriend and her parents to hide the child of an unwed father, arranging for the baby to be adopted by strangers while the father pursued a custody suit. Smith v. Malouf, 722 So. 2d 490, 498 (Miss. 1998). In another suit a car dealership forged a customer's name on a sales contract and sold the contract to a finance company, resulting in the customer's credit being damaged. T. G. Blackwell Chevrolet v. Eshee, 261 So. 2d 481, 486 (Miss. 1972). Contrarily, what is not sufficient have been such actions as a law firm breaching an employment contract with an attorney, locking him out, refusing him secretarial support and dropping his name from the firm sign. Fuselier, Ott & McKee PA v. Moeller, 507 So. 2d 63, 69 (Miss. 1987). A Mississippi federal court defined the necessary severity as acts "'so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.'" Pegues v. Emerson Elec. Co., 913 F. Supp. 976, 982 (N.D. Miss.1996) (quoting RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS 46 cmt. d. (1965).