Negligent infliction of emotional distress is a relatively new tort in Tennessee. True, the tort existed in the early days of Tennessee tort law (not by that name, but the root concept was out there) but the circumstances giving rise to liability were extremely narrow.
All of that changed a little less than twenty years ago and we know have a nice body of law on negligent infliction of emotional distress claims. I wrote an article on subject in an article for the May, 2013 edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association. Click on the link o get a good grasp on the current Tennessee law of negligent infliction of emotional distress.