A panel of California judges has overturned the ruling of a subordinate court the said that an employer (AutoZone) was not liable for the actions of an employee when he assaulted and struck a customer while at work. The full ruling (below) is a bit cloudy because it seems to suggest that AutoZone should have been able to predict this employee’s behavior. However, they made reference to the fact that juvenile records are inaccessible to employers, suggesting that the employee (Erwin Gomez) had some of type of conviction for which he was tried as a juvenile. If there was a juvenile record, AutoZone could have never obtained it as part of the employment screening process (if in fact they ever conducted a background check).

One thing that was mentioned and I would think factored into the decision is a prior verbal altercation the employee had three years earlier with a customer.

We’ll try to get a better account of the exact facts in the coming days.

Read a full summary of the ruling here . . .