Direct Liability Personal Injury

Direct Corporate Liability for Personal Injury

Brien Roche

A corporation may be either directly liable or vicariously liable for injury claims. Vicarious liability is discussed in another blog post on this site.

Direct corporate liability may be based upon actions of a high-ranking corporate employee, negligent hiring, negligent treatment or perhaps negligent supervision.

This direct corporate liability may be based upon a corporate officer or the board of directors authorizing, directing, ratifying or engaging in bad behavior.

If the president of a corporation engages in negligent conduct then not only is that president liable but the corporation is liable, both on a vicarious liability theory and also on a direct liability theory. The question arises as to how far up the corporate chain does the actor need to be in order for the corporation to have direct liability. In Parker v. Carilion Clinic, 296 Va. 319, 343 (2018), the court refused to create any bright line rule. The court said that the governing management structure needs to be looked at and a determination made as to whether or not the actor had the discretionary authority to act on behalf of the corporation. This would certainly include corporate officers acting within the authority of the bylaws. It would include the board of directors acting with authority under the corporate charter. It includes managers to whom the corporation has confided management of either the entire corporation or a department or division. In Egan v. Butler, 290 Va. 62, 76 (2015), the court noted that this analysis is fact-based and that normally the question of authority should be left to the jury.

Direct Liability Personal Injury-Joint Venture

In some instances a corporation may be a subsidiary or a parent of another entity. It is possible that the two, rather than simply being parent-child, may also be part of a joint venture. If you can allege that the parent and the subsidiary are part of a joint venture, then the conduct of one manager may create direct liability for the other party to the joint venture. Whether a given set of facts constitutes a joint venture is generally a jury question. Wells v. Whitaker, 207 Va. 616, 625 (1966); Smith v. Grenadier, 203 Va. 740, 744 (1962)

This can be a powerful allegation. In particular if you can allege such a joint venture, then that potentially brings the parent company within the scope of the operation.

Negligent Training

Negligent training may create direct liability for an entity. There are several circuit courts that have refused to recognize a cause of action for negligent training. Garcia v. B and J Trucking, Inc., 80 Va. Cir. 633 (2010) To sustain such a claim, the plaintiff would need to allege that the entity knew the employee’s actions strongly suggested that the employee was unfit for the job and that the job involved an unreasonable risk of harm to others. Williams v. Dowell, 34 Va. Cir. 240 (1994)

Direct Liability Personal Injury-Negligent Hiring

Negligent hiring claims likewise tend to be closely looked at. To prove such a claim, there must be an allegation that the employer failed to exercise reasonable care in hiring. That may arise where an individual, with known propensities that should have been discovered, is hired for a position where it should have been foreseeable he posed a threat of injury to others. Southeast Apartments Management, Inc. v. Jackman, 257 Va. 256, 260 (1999)

Direct Corporate Liability for Personal Injury

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Brien Roche

Brien Roche

A corporation may be either directly liable or vicariously liable for injury claims. Vicarious liability is discussed in another blog post on this site.

Direct corporate liability may be based upon actions of a high-ranking corporate employee, negligent hiring, negligent treatment or perhaps negligent supervision.

This direct corporate liability may be based upon a corporate officer or the board of directors authorizing, directing, ratifying or engaging in bad behavior.