Opinion ID: 1774332
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Heading: Corporate Vicarious Liability for Punitive Damages

Text: In Mercury Motors Express, Inc. v. Smith, 393 So.2d 545 (Fla. 1981), an employee of Mercury Motors Express lost control of his tractor-trailer rig while acting in the scope of his employment and killed a man. The personal representative of the decedent brought suit against the employer and alleged that it was vicariously liable for the willful and wanton acts of its employee. This Court held that, although a corporate employer could be vicariously liable for punitive damages caused by the willful and wanton acts of an employee, there must be some independent fault on the part of the corporate employer. Because the plaintiff had failed to allege any independent fault on the part of Mercury Motors Express, we quashed the district court's decision that had approved an award of punitive damages in the trial court. In stating the requisite degree of fault that would subject an employer to vicarious liability for punitive damages, we stated the following rule: Although the misconduct of the employee, upon which the vicarious liability of the employer for punitive damages is based, must be willful and wanton, it is not necessary that the fault of the employer, independent of his employee's conduct, also be willful and wanton. It is sufficient that the plaintiff allege and prove some fault on the part of the employer which foreseeably contributed to the plaintiff's injury to make him vicariously liable for punitive damages. Id. at 549. Under this theory, a plaintiff must (a) establish that the conduct of the employee was willful and wanton and (b) establish some fault on the part of a corporate employer in order to support a claim of vicarious liability against the corporate employer for punitive damages. We emphasize that under this theory it is not necessary for the plaintiff to establish that the corporate employer acted with the same heightened culpability as the employee to allow punitive damages. It is sufficient if the plaintiff establishes ordinary negligence on the part of the corporate employer.