Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania
Can a business be held liable for their employee that sexually harrassed me?
I was sexually harrassed over the telephone numerous times, I had 11 of the phone calls traced. Local police are involved & obtained the name, etc. of this person calling. Also found out that the person harrassing me has a prior criminal record. This person is employed at an exterminating company, was naturally given access to my home. I am currently pressing charges against the individual but, can the exterminating company be held liable for negligence or can any type of blame be placed on the comany for hiring an invidual with a prior criminal history including: armed robbery, breaking & entering, sexual harrassment, telephone harrassment, etc.? Thank you for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can a business be held liable for their employee that sexually harrassed me?
I can only answer generally, not as to your particular fact situation.
There's two basic ways a company can be liable for its emplyoees act: first, if the worker was "in the course of employment," (i.e., doing his job) an employer is almost automatically liable for a worker's conduct under the principle of vicarious liability.
Second, when a worker does something really bad, like the intentional harassment you describe, the company usually will say, that was not part of his job, that conduct was "outside the scope of his duties," so we're not responsible. In such cases, a company may still be held liable on theories of negligent hiring, supervision, training, retention, etc., based on the kind of facts you described. This type of liability isn't automatic: you need to prove that the company itself was at fault for allowing the wrongdoing.
But only your own lawyer can review the facts to see how it plays in your case.
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