Legal Question in Family Law in Mississippi

Re: Affairs in the workplace

The Mississippi Supreme Court held in a recent case, that as a matter of law, an employer is not vicariously liable for alienation of affection caused by an employee’s affair with the plaintiff’s spouse. The plaintiff, Phillips, filed suit against a doctor who had an affair with Phillips’s wife. The doctor and Phillips’ wife were co-workers at a Children’s Clinic. Phillips also sued the medical clinic, alleging that the clinic was vicariously liable for the physician’s actions and that the clinic knew of the affair and negligently allowed it to continue. The clinic filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). The trial court denied the motion and the clinic filed an interlocutory appeal. Children’s Medical Group, P.A., v. Phillips, 940 So. 2d 931 (Miss. 2006).

The Supreme Court held that the trial court should have granted the motion to dismiss the respondeat superior claim. The Court held that for an employer to be liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior, or vicarious liability, the employee’s conduct must have been within the scope of his employment. For conduct to fall within the scope of employment, the employee must be performing work that he was hired to perform, the conduct must occur during work and at employment locations, and the conduct must be partially in service of the employer. The Supreme Court held that, as a matter of law, an employee’s affair with a coworker is “beyond the course and scope of employment.”