12.7.1 Employer's Vicarious Liability.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

12.7.1 Employer’s Vicarious Liability. In Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. v. Church,¹²⁴ the court of appeals cited Restatement (Second) of Agency § 247 (1958) for the well-settled principle that an “employer [is] liable for defamatory statements made by an employee acting within the scope of his employment.”¹²⁵ In Church, the state attorney general brought suit against a newspaper and its foreign affairs editor and president/publisher, alleging damages as the result of an editorial written while he was in office suggesting that he had Communist sympathies. Plaintiff received an award of $250,000 actual and $235,000 punitive damages against each defendant at the trial court level.

The court of appeals affirmed with...