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SUAREZ v. DICKMONT PLASTICS CORPORATION2/18/1997
e express or implied authority to act on behalf of the corporate employer." The instruction further defined apparent authority based on language in Munson v. United Technologies Corp., 28 Conn. App. 184, 188-89, 609 A.2d 1066 (1992), which involved the question of whether employees' statements were admissible to bind their employer under the apparent authority theory. Specifically, the trial court instructed: "The apparent authority must be derived not from the acts of the agent, but from the acts of the principal. The acts of the principal must be such that, one, the principal held the agent out as possessing sufficient authority to embrace the act in question . . . and, two, in consequence thereof the person dealing with the agent, acting in good faith reasonably believed under all of the
circumstances that the agent had the necessary authority to act on behalf of the corporate employer."
We conclude that the trial court improperly instructed the jury that it could attribute responsibility to the defendant for Santiago's conduct based on the apparent authority theory. In Jett, we specifically stated that a corporate employer may be liable in common-law tort for an employee's injury " f the assailant can be identified as the alter ego of the corporation, or the corporation has directed or authorized the assault." Jett v. Dunlap, supra, 179 Conn. 219. Nowhere in Jett did we signal that an employer may be liable under the apparent authority theory. We decline to adopt the view that an employer may be liable in common-law tort for an employee's actions based on apparent authority. Indeed, only when "the assailant is of such rank in the corporation that he may be deemed the alter ego of the corporation under the standards governing disregard of the corporate entity attribution of corporate responsibility for the actor's conduct . . . appropriate. It is inappropriate where the actor is merely a foreman or supervisor." Id. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court improperly instructed the jury that the defendant could be found liable under the apparent authority theory.
B
The defendant also argues that the trial court should have rendered judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict because the defendant's liability is predicated on the actions of a foreman who was not the defendant's alter ego. Specifically, the defendant asserts that the court disregarded this court's statement in Jett v. Dunlap, supra, 179 Conn. 219, that attribution of corporate responsibility predicated on the alter ego theory "is inappropriate where the actor is merely a foreman or supervisor." In response, the plaintiff argues that, in
the context of a small, family owned corporation in which a foreman has substantial responsibilities and authority, such as in this case, corporate responsibility should not be limited merely because the employee's title is foreman. In other words, the plaintiff argues that it is a question of fact whether the managerial employee is sufficiently high in the chain of command to be considered the alter ego of the corporate employer without respect to the employee's formal title. We do not decide this claim because, even if we assume without deciding that, under the circumstances of this case, the jury could have found that Santiago, as the night shift foreman, had been in fact the defendant's alter ego, as we conclude in part III of this opinion, there was insufficient evidence of his intent to injure the plaintiff.
III
The defendant further argues that the trial court improperly denied its motions to set aside the verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the plaintiff had not established the defendant's act
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