Employers May Be Liable for their Supervisors’ Misconduct Even When They Act Reasonably.

The Tenth Circuit decided in a case issued on January 12, 2009, that a Utah movie theater may be liable for its supervisor’s sexual assault of a subordinate even when (1) the theater acted reasonably under the circumstances , (2) the supervisor had no history of sexual harassment before the assault, and (3) the theater fired the supervisor and took other appropriate corrective measures after it learned of the assault. The court in Chapman v. Carmike Cinemas declared that, because the theater did not prove that the victim had failed to promptly notify the theater, the theater could not defend itself from vicarious liability for the supervisor’s actions. The case, however, hinted that the outcome may have been different if, instead of arguing that the application of the current Tenth Circuit allowed it to prevail, the theater had argued for the application of a different rule that had been adopted by a different appellate court.