MBE Rules · Torts
Negligent hiring, retention & supervision
The rule
An employer is directly liable when it knew or should have known, through reasonable investigation, that an employee posed a foreseeable risk of the type of harm the employee ultimately caused, and the employer's failure to screen, train, supervise, or discharge the employee was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury.
In plain English
This is a direct-negligence theory (not vicarious), so it can reach conduct outside the scope of employment — for example, an employee's intentional assault — when the employer failed to check a background that would have revealed the danger.
The trap
Confusing this with respondeat superior. Negligent hiring reaches acts OUTSIDE the scope of employment; respondeat superior does not.
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