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Summary Liability.docx BUS 624 Negligent Tort Liability Law and Ethics in the Business Environment BUS 624 Introduction Superior Electrical is a business that does electrical work as well as other related components at numerous construction sites. They a$7.49
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Summary Liability.docx BUS 624 Negligent Tort Liability Law and Ethics in the Business Environment BUS 624 Introduction Superior Electrical is a business that does electrical work as well as other related components at numerous construction sites. They a
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L BUS 624 Negligent Tort Liability Law and Ethics in the Business Environment BUS 624 Introduction Superior Electrical is a business that does electrical work as well as other related components at numerous construction sites. They are responsible for the hiring of employees with the inten...
liabilitydocx bus 624 negligent tort liability law and ethics in the business environment bus 624 introduction superior electrical is a business that does electrical work as well as other re
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BUS 624
Negligent Tort Liability
Law and Ethics in the Business Environment
BUS 624
Introduction
Superior Electrical is a business that does electrical work as well as other related
components at numerous construction sites. They are responsible for the hiring of employees
with the intention of these employees using a company car to get to the various locations. These
locations are assigned to different employees throughout the day. Because of the different
liability issues that comes with hiring drivers, the company requires all employees to have a valid
driver’s license. The company decided to hire Cory Jones as an apprentice and then later
promoted him to a full-time electrician within the company. At this time, the company did not
conduct a background check to verify that Mr. Jones was telling the truth about having a valid
license. One day, while Jones was on his way home from work, he got into a collision with two
other cars. Since the accident was solely the fought of Mr. Jones, who is employed by Superior
Electrical, the company was sued by one of the other drivers for respondeat superior and
negligent hiring. Respondeat superior and negligent hiring have legal elements that can
determine if Superior Electrical is liable for either scenarios.
Negligent Hiring
“The elements of a negligence claim are (1) that the defendant owed a duty of care to the
plaintiff, (2) that the defendant committed a breach of this duty, and (3) that this breach was the
actual and proximate cause of injury experienced by the plaintiff” (Langvardt et al, 2019, p. 246).
This first element is the defendant owing a duty of care to the plaintiff. Even though Mr. Jones
, did not have a valid driver’s license at the time of the incident, he was made well aware of the
requirement put out by his employer of needing a valid driver’s license. This was clearly outlined
to him and he took the job knowing that his license was not valid. Since the company, Superior
Electrical, is the one being sued, they could be considered responsible for putting the plaintiff at
risk of an unlicensed driver. Superior Electrical decided to violate their own rules as well as
breech their contract when making sure all of their employees held a valid driver’s license. By
law, anyone in the United States needs a valid driver’s license to operate a motor vehicle.
Superior Electrical, as a company that seeks drivers, should have procedures to make sure they
are verifying the driving record of all employees no matter how long they have been employed.
Any person can have a valid driver’s license at any given moment but then also have it
suspended all within a few days’ time. This will help to keep the company’s liability to a
minimum and prevent lawsuits in the future.
The second element involves committing a breach of duty. Superior Electrical ultimately
committed a breach of duty when they decided not to verify if Mr. Jones had a valid driver’s
license not only before promoting him but before hiring as well. In the case of Malorney v. B &
L Motor Freight, Inc. “Regarding defendant's public-policy argument, there is no evidence in the
record to justify the contention that the cost of checking on the criminal history of all truck-
driver applicants is too expensive and burdensome when measured against the potential utility of
doing so” (1986). This means that Superior Electrical could not give an excuse of dodging
procedures due to cost. It would have been cheaper for them to run his driver’s license than to
payout in an accident. Even though Mr. Jones was just an apprentice in the beginning, running
his motor vehicle report would have ruled him out early of any promotions that Superior
Electrical would have approved him for. Blatantly, if Superior Electrical knew of Mr. Jones’s
situation, they would have never allowed him to operate one of their motor vehicles putting
everyone on the road at risk. One factor of reasonable foreseeability does prove that Superior
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