Opinion ID: 535607
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Virginia Tort Claims

Text: 11 Spencer contends that the district court erred in holding that Virginia law does not recognize claims for invasion of privacy and negligent supervision. She also argues that the court was in error by dismissing, under the Commonwealth's statute of limitations, those portions of her claims which were based on Neal's acts which occurred more than two years prior to her filing suit. She contends that these acts squarely fit within the continuing tort exception to the statute. Spencer also maintains that the trial court erred in directing a verdict in favor of G.E. on her assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims. She contends that G.E. is vicariously liable for Neal's torts because Neal, as G.E.'s manager and agent, was aided in accomplishing his tortious acts by the existence of the agency relationship. Thus, the mere existence of the agency relationship under these circumstances establishes liability, regardless of whether the prerequisites of respondeat superior are shown. Alternatively, while conceding that Neal's actions were outside the scope of his employment, Spencer argues that the evidence at trial presented a jury issue over G.E.'s ratification of those actions and, therefore, a directed verdict on the grounds of respondeat superior was in error. She also contests the court's alternative holding that the WCA precluded G.E.'s liability. Finally, she challenges the trial court's exclusion under Fed.R.Evid. 403 of evidence of Neal's consensual sexual relations with other of his subordinates. We take up these contentions in turn. 12 1. While Spencer's invasion of privacy claims were dismissed purely as a matter of law, i.e., on the grounds that such a claim does not exist in Virginia, we are precluded from reaching this issue, as well as the arguments surrounding her assault and battery claim, by the facts as found by the trial court. Recently, in Dwyer v. Smith, 867 F.2d 184, 192-93 (4th Cir.1989), we reaffirmed our rule that when a trial court's findings of fact in a fully-litigated Title VII claim are dispositive of a claimant's previously-dismissed legal claims, any error in the dismissal of those claims has been rendered harmless. 6 Such is the case here. 13 Spencer readily admits that proof of the sexual assaults by Neal is essential to both her invasion of privacy and assault and battery claims. This proof she simply failed to produce. As the trial court noted: Spencer has failed to carry her burden of proving the sexual assaults by a preponderance of the evidence.... Accordingly, the Court cannot find that Neal sexually assaulted Spencer. Spencer, 697 F.Supp. at 212. Likewise, the court concluded that as to the occurrence of the alleged rape, Spencer has failed to carry her burden of proof. Id. at 213. 14 Spencer argues that these findings do not collaterally estop her legal claims because they were not essential to the disposition of her Title VII claims. This argument is at best disingenuous. While sexual assault and rape are certainly not elements of a Title VII sexual harassment cause of action, Spencer based her civil rights claims firmly on the existence of Neal's attacks. She is the one who made these findings essential to her Title VII claims by the way she pleaded and tried this case. To now allow her to avoid the effects of her chosen course would fly in the face of the principles of fairness and judicial economy which underlie the collateral estoppel rule. See Ritter v. Mount St. Mary's College, 814 F.2d 986, 991-92 (4th Cir.1987). 15 Spencer was afforded a full and fair opportunity to prove the assaults before the district court and failed. Consequently, she is now collaterally estopped from raising against G.E. the legal claims based on the unproven assaults, i.e., invasion of privacy and assault and battery. 7 Accordingly, any error in regard to these claims was harmless and, without comment on the trial court's reasoning, we affirm its dismissal of the invasion of privacy claim and its directed verdict on the assault and battery claim. 16 2. To reject Spencer's contention that there exists in Virginia a cause of action against G.E. for its negligent supervision of Neal, we need look no further than the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision in Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia v. Dowdy, 235 Va. 55, 365 S.E.2d 751 (1988). In Dowdy, the Virginia court framed the issue as whether the common law of Virginia recognizes a tort of negligent supervision of an employee by the employer and its managerial personnel. Id. 365 S.E.2d at 751. In answering the question in the negative, the court reasoned that there can be no negligence unless there has been the breach of a legal duty and [i]n Virginia, there is no duty of reasonable care imposed upon an employer in the supervision of its employees under these circumstances.... Id. 365 S.E.2d at 752-53. 17 Not surprisingly, Spencer attempts to distinguish her case from Dowdy on the circumstances. In Dowdy, the negligent supervision claim was based on the employer's negligence in failing to stop the employee's supervisors from intentionally harassing and excessively criticizing the employee about his job performance. Id. 365 S.E.2d at 752-53. Spencer contends that her claim is inherently different primarily because it is based on Neal's sexual assaults and sexual solicitations. However, as our previous discussion made clear, Spencer can no longer rely on the allegations of assault which she has failed to prove. Consequently, her claim is reduced to one based on G.E.'s negligence in failing to prevent Neal from intentionally harassing her by making unwanted sexual solicitations and by engaging in sexual horseplay. Thus understood, Spencer's claim is not sufficiently different from the claim in Dowdy to remove it from the ambit of Dowdy 's holding. Therefore, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the negligent supervision claim. 8 18 3. Spencer's final state law argument is that the trial court erred in directing a verdict on the question of G.E.'s vicarious liability for Neal's alleged torts, including her claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. She argues that respondeat superior is not the only basis for holding G.E. liable for this tort and offers as an alternative an agency theory of liability whereby an employer is made liable for the torts of its employee-agent when the mere existence of the agency relationship facilitates the consummation of the tort. See Restatement (Second) of Agency Sec. 219(2)(d) (1958); e.g., Sparks v. Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc., 830 F.2d 1554, 1558-59 (11th Cir.1987). 19 The problem with this theory of vicarious liability, as G.E. points out, is two-fold. First, the cases that Spencer relies upon to support her argument involve Title VII liability, a much different animal than common law tort liability. See Vinson v. Taylor, 753 F.2d 141, 150-51 (D.C.Cir.1985), aff'd on other grounds sub nom. Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 106 S.Ct. 2399, 91 L.Ed.2d 49 (1986). Title VII employer liability is premised on a statutory scheme which broadly defines employer, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(b), and which is intended to effectuate the remedial and public policy goals of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Common law tort liability, on the other hand, is not powered by the public policy engine of Title VII, but rather is concerned primarily with the proper economic balance of risks and harms in society. Id. Understandably, these differing rationales make us hesitant to expand Virginia's common law on a theory of liability rooted in Title VII. 20 This leads to the second problem with Spencer's argument--that she cannot point to a single Virginia case which adopts her proposed theory. In ruling on state law issues our task is clear: to apply the law of the state as we determine it would be applied by the state courts. 19 C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure, Sec. 4507 (1982). This determination is one made with caution, especially when we are asked, as Spencer does here, to extend state law to a point beyond which a state's highest court has not taken it. W.A. Wright, Inc. v. KDI Sylvan Pools, Inc., 746 F.2d 215, 218 (3d Cir.1984). To adopt Spencer's proffered theory would dramatically broaden an employer's vicarious liability under Virginia law and would do so without any indication from the Virginia courts that they are so inclined. Such an extension of a state's common law is one that a federal court should not make. Consequently, the district court was correct in limiting G.E.'s vicarious liability to the traditional rules of respondeat superior. 21 Likewise, we have no trouble affirming the district court's conclusion that Spencer did not make out a jury question of G.E.'s ratification of Neal's acts. As the district court noted, there is simply no evidence that G.E. ratified Neal's harassing conduct. In fact, the evidence at trial was that as soon as G.E. was informed by Spencer of the alleged incidents, she was immediately transferred away from Neal and an investigation was launched which eventually resulted in Neal's resignation from the company. Spencer, 697 F.Supp. at 215-16. On these facts, the district court's directed verdict on respondeat superior grounds must be affirmed. 9