Legal Question in Personal Injury in Missouri
Liability at Work
I am an assistant manager at a large retail store. I was acting manager the other night and was approached by a disabled customer. Her 4 year old granddaughter was with her and needed a ''big wheel'' for her preschool the next day. The grandmother was extremely desperate and was begging for someone to build the ''big wheel'' for her. I let my emotions get the best of me and I built the ''big wheel'' and the little girl rode it for a few seconds in the store. They then went home. I spoke with my manager and she said that it was a mistake but that the chances of anything happening was minor. If something happened and the big wheel broke, and the child got hurt, would the lady be liable for letting me build it, would the retail store be liable, or would I be liable?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Liability at Work
You raise an interesting question. In this situation, you have to balance the PR image of the store against the policy and procedure to determine what to do.
There is a liability issue potentially if the child was injured, and the injury was due to your failure to follow assembly instructions. If you followed the instructions and the toy broke and injured the child, you could still be sued even though you did nothing wrong. So could your employer because an employer is liable for the acts of its servants. The plaintiff would have to show that the injury was caused or contributed to be caused by your negligence, because once you undertake a task for someone, you are obligated to perform that task in a non-negligent manner.
You can't fix this problem, but you can surely avoid the problem in the future. You're a manager, not a maintenance person or installer. If they want it built, they need to have someone else build it. If it costs you a sale, customers are like Doritos... they'll be more along shortly.
Good luck
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