Employer Liability For Employee Drinking Not Expanded

A recent Massachusetts Supreme Court decision reaffirms Massachusetts employers are not required to monitor the offsite conduct of workers. The court held a nursing home could not be held responsible for injuries sustained by a pedestrian struck by the defendant's intoxicated employee minutes after he drove home from a workrelated meeting at a Chinese restaurant.

The plaintiff had argued the nursing home was responsible because the drunk driver was acting within the scope of his employment when he caused the accident.

The critical question for employer liability is still who has control over the alcohol. If the employer does not control the liquor supply, and it is not the employer s alcohol, the employer does not have to control the behavior of the people who might be drinking it.

Conduct is only within the scope of employment if it occurs substantially within the authorized time and space of the employee's job, the court said. Assuming the driver was acting within the scope of his employment when he was at the restaurant where he drank for a meeting, the nursing home's legal responsibility ended when he left the restaurant to travel home, the court held.

It was widely felt that since the Supreme Court voluntarily took this case for further review after the appeals court had decided not to expand employer liability, it was going to go the other way.