When a person has been injured or killed by another’s negligence, a closely related person may have witnessed the event. The person who witnessed the incident may have a “bystander” claim.
To determine whether a person has a valid bystander claim, courts consider the following: (1) whether the person making the bystander claim was located near the scene of the incident; (2) whether the shock resulted from a direct emotional impact upon the plaintiff from the sensory and contemporaneous observance of the incident, as opposed with learning of the incident from others after its occurrence; and (3) whether the person making the bystander claim and the victim were closely related, as opposed with an absence of any relationship or the presence of only a distant relationship. Chapa v. Traciers & Associates, 267 S.W.3d 386, (Tex. App. Houston 14th Dist. 2008).
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