Section 18 Supreme Court of Missouri Cases on Vicarious Liability for Employee?s Violent Acts

• Library: Employer-Employee Law 2008

In Smothers v. Welch & Co. House Furnishing Co., 274 S.W. 678
(Mo. 1925), the Supreme Court of Missouri stated the basic principle that liability for an assault by an employee depends on whether the assault was committed within the scope of the assailant’s employment. More specifically, neither the employee’s motive nor whether the conduct occurred during the time of employment is conclusive. Rather, the question is whether the act was “done by virtue of the employment and in furtherance of the [employer’s] business.” Smothers, 274 S.W. at 679. Stated slightly differently, the employer is liable if the act occurred in the line of the employee’s employment, while the employee was about the employer’s business and seeking to accomplish the employer’s purpose. Conversely, the employer is not liable if the employee was pursuing the employee’s own ends for the employee’s own purposes, and not the employer’s. See also Porter v. Thompson, 206 S.W.2d 509, 511–12 (Mo. 1947).

In Wellman v. Pacer Oil Co., 504 S.W.2d 55 (Mo. banc 1973), and Henderson v. Laclede Radio, Inc., 506 S.W.2d 434 (Mo. 1974), the Supreme Court of Missouri provided more detail on the application of this general principle to serious crimes and violent acts. In Wellman...