 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Minnis v. Oregon Mutual Insurance Company6/7/2002
-76. Employers do not ordinarily hire others for the specific purpose of committing intentional torts, and vicarious liability would be defeated in almost every instance under such a standard. Rather, for the purpose of determining whether a complaint meets the second and third Chesterman requirements (employer's purpose/kind of act hired to perform) for the imposition of vicarious liability, "the focus properly is directed at whether the complaint contains sufficient allegations of [employee's] conduct that was within the scope of his employment," that is, conduct that the employee was hired to perform, "that arguably resulted in the acts that caused [plaintiff's] injury." 328 Or at 376 (emphasis added). In both cases, this court held that the allegations in the complaint were sufficient to allow a jury to infer that the tortfeasor's "conduct in cultivating a trust relationship with the plaintiff was motivated, at least in part, by a desire to further the interests of the [employer], that that conduct was of a kind that the [employee] was hired to perform, and that that conduct led to the sexual assaults." Lourim, 328 Or at 386; see also Fearing, 328 Or at 376 (similarly stating). Accordingly, plaintiffs in those cases had stated claims for vicarious liability based on the doctrine of respondeat superior.
With the foregoing understanding of Fearing and Lourim, we return to the passage in Fearing on which the Court of Appeals relied for its standard in this case. In Fearing, this court stated that the allegations in that case stated a claim for the employing archdiocese's vicarious liability because:
" laintiff allege that [priest] 'used and manipulated his fiduciary position, respect, and authority as youth pastor and priest' to befriend plaintiff and his family, gain their trust, spend large periods of time alone with plaintiff, physically touch plaintiff and, ultimately, to gain the opportunity to commit the sexual assaults upon him. A jury reasonably could infer that [the priest's] performance of his pastoral duties with respect to plaintiff and his family were a necessary precursor to the sexual abuse and that the assaults thus were a direct outgrowth of and were engendered by conduct that was within the scope of [priest's] employment." 328 Or at 377 (emphasis added).
Understood in context, that passage addresses a situation in which the court must determine whether tortious conduct by a tortfeasor, acting within the time and space limits of employment, was sufficiently connected to the employer's purpose to support the employer's vicarious liability. If, however, the situation does not involve a tortfeasor who is acting within the time and space limits authorized by employment, the court does not reach the question of whether the tortious conduct was the "direct outgrowth of conduct that was within the scope of" the tortfeasor's employment.
This case is an example of the latter situation: Tuck, while at his apartment, was not acting within the time and space limits authorized by his employment. Accordingly, the Fearing standard does not apply. We turn now to the personal injury coverage of the policy.
Little John's argues that Winters's claim concerning Tuck's actions at his apartment is a covered personal injury because it states a claim for false imprisonment, one of the offenses enumerated in the personal injury provision. However, a prerequisite for coverage under the personal injury provision, as under the bodily injury provision, is that the employee who caused the injury did so within the course and scope of employment. Therefore, even if Winters's allegations about Tuck's actions at his apartment state a claim of false imprisonment, the injur
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Oregon Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|