Opinion ID: 13423
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sarabyn and Royster's Scope of Employment

Text: 22 The district court reviewed the Attorney General's certification of Sarabyn and Royster and found that they were not acting within the scope of their employment by the United States. We disagree.
23 Whether an employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment under the Westfall Act is governed by state law. Garcia v. United States, 62 F.3d 126, 127 (5th Cir.1995) (en banc) (citing Williams v. United States, 350 U.S. 857, 76 S.Ct. 100, 100 L.Ed. 761 (1955)); see also H.R.REP. NO. 100-700 (noting that state law governs the question of whether a federal employee acted within the scope of his or her employment under the FTCA), reprinted in 1988 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5949. Here, all the parties agree that Texas law applies to the allegedly tortious conduct, which occurred primarily in Texas. See Williams v. United States, 71 F.3d 502, 506 (5th Cir.1995). We review the scope of employment issue de novo. Id. at 505. The parties stipulated to the facts below; therefore we need only apply the law to those facts. 24
25 Under Texas law, respondeat superior analysis determines whether conduct that constitutes an intentional tort was within an employee's scope of employment. Id. at 506; Houston Transit Co. v. Felder, 146 Tex. 428, 208 S.W.2d 880, 881 (1948). Texas's general rule for respondeat superior is that an employee acts within his scope of employment if the act is done (1) within the employee's general authority, (2) in furtherance of the employer's business, and (3) for the accomplishment of the objective for which the employee was employed. Robertson Tank Lines, Inc. v. Van Cleave, 468 S.W.2d 354, 357 (Tex.1971); 1 TEXAS TORTS AND REMEDIES § 4.02[a] (J. Hadley Edgar, Jr. & James B. Sales eds., 1996). However in the case of defamation, where the conduct in question is a verbal statement and not some other physical act, Texas courts approach the respondeat superior analysis differently: 26 An action is sustainable against a corporation for defamation by its agent, if such defamation is referable to the duty owing by the agent to the corporation, and was made while in the discharge of that duty. Neither express authorization nor subsequent ratification is necessary to establish liability. 27 Texam Oil Corp. v. Poynor, 436 S.W.2d 129, 130 (Tex.1968) (quoting Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co. v. Harris, 75 S.W.2d 974, 976 (Tex.Civ.App.--Eastland 1934, writ dism'd)); see also Wells v. Shop Rite Foods, Inc., 474 F.2d 838, 840 (5th Cir.1973); Wagner v. Caprock Beef Packers Co., 540 S.W.2d 303, 304 (Tex.1976); 4 TEXAS TORTS AND REMEDIES, supra, § 52.06. 28 The employer's liability for the acts of its employees is quite broad as long as they are acting within the scope of their employment. Neither of the above rules protects the employer from acts done by its employees of which it would not have approved. Hooper v. Pitney Bowes, Inc., 895 S.W.2d 773, 777 (Tex.App.--Texarkana 1995, writ denied). An employer is liable for the foreseeable intentional and malicious acts of its employees done within the scope of employment, even if not authorized. Houston Transit, 208 S.W.2d at 881; Hooper, 895 S.W.2d at 777-78; Adami v. Dobie, 440 S.W.2d 330, 334 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1969, writ dism'd); see also Williams, 71 F.3d at 506, 1 TEXAS TORTS AND REMEDIES, supra, § 4.02[f]. The employer also is liable for the acts of its employees committed within the scope of employment that are contrary to the express orders of the employer. Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Hagenloh, 151 Tex. 191, 247 S.W.2d 236, 239 (1952); 1 TEXAS TORTS AND REMEDIES, supra, § 4.02[e]; see also Hooper, 895 S.W.2d at 777. 29
30 However, the employer's broad liability is limited in that an employee who detours from the employer's business is not acting within the scope of employment. In Texas,  'when the servant turns aside, for however short a time, from the prosecution of the master's work to engage in an affair wholly his own, he ceases to act for the master, and the responsibility for that which he does in pursuing his own business or pleasure is upon him alone.'  Hagenloh, 247 S.W.2d at 241 (quoting Galveston, H. & S.A. Ry. Co. v. Currie, 100 Tex. 136, 96 S.W. 1073, 1074 (1906)); see also 1 TEXAS TORTS AND REMEDIES, supra, § 4.02[c]. No liability extends to the employer when the intentional tort is actuated by personal animosity and there is no close relation between the [tort] and the performance of the duties of employment. Hagenloh, 247 S.W.2d at 241. 31 Rodriguez cites several examples where the employer was not held liable for an employee's acts done while turned aside from the employer's business. See Smith v. M Sys. Food Stores, 156 Tex. 484, 297 S.W.2d 112, 114 (1957) (finding no employer liability for assault and false arrest by security guard of shoplifter's spouse where assault was directly in response to comments by spouse); Lowry v. Anderson-Berney Bldg. Co., 139 Tex. 29, 161 S.W.2d 459, 462 (1942) (finding a lack of evidence that employee who intentionally hit an independent contractor was within scope of employment); Viking v. Circle K Convenience Stores, Inc., 742 S.W.2d 732, 733-34 (Tex.App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1987, writ denied) (finding no employer liability where employee left store unattended to retrieve a gun and shoot a person for scratching his car); Bradford v. Fort Worth Transit Co., 450 S.W.2d 919, 927 (Tex.Civ.App.--Fort Worth 1970, writ ref'd n.r.e.) (sustaining jury verdict which found that bus driver's sole motive in shooting passenger who attacked him was self defense and not within scope of employment); Adami, 440 S.W.2d at 332-33 (finding no employer liability for employee's killing of person who failed to close a gate on a ranch where the employee left the land to confront the deceased); Mitchell v. Ellis, 374 S.W.2d 333, 335 (Tex.Civ.App.--Fort Worth 1964, writ ref'd) (finding no employer liability for employee's negligent parking of truck while stopped to get cigarettes). 32 Besides the above physical examples of an employee turning aside from the employer's business, Rodriguez argues that a mental turning aside also takes an employee outside the scope of his employment. He relies upon Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 307 F.2d 120 (5th Cir.1962), and the Restatement (Second) of Agency § 235 for the proposition that an employee can be performing the acts of its employer, but still be acting outside the scope of his employment when his motives are to accomplish a purpose of his own. His reliance upon Standard Oil is misplaced, however, because it applies federal law, not Texas law, in discussing whether criminal liability, not tortious liability, should be imputed to an employer for the acts of its employees in the process of stealing from that same employer. Id. at 122-23, 126-30. 33 Rodriguez's reliance upon the Restatement does support his proposition and is not necessarily misplaced because the Texas Supreme Court has adopted the Restatement 's general test for respondeat superior, and where there is no contrary case law, it is likely to follow related provisions of the Restatement. See Aliota v. Graham, 984 F.2d 1350, 1358 (3d Cir.1993); see also M Sys. Food Stores, 297 S.W.2d at 114 (quoting RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF AGENCY, supra, § 229); Dobson v. Don January Roofing Co., 392 S.W.2d 153, 155 (Tex.Civ.App.--Tyler 1965, writ ref'd n.r.e.) (quoting RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF AGENCY, supra, § 235). Section 235 states that if an act is done with no intention to perform it as a part of or incident to a service on account of which he is employed then the act is not within the scope of employment. RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF AGENCY, supra, § 235. Rodriguez relies upon the commentary which notes that this rule applies even if the act would be authorized on behalf of the employer. See id. cmt. a. The commentary goes on to state, however, that acts are within the scope of employment if the servant is actuated to some extent by an intent to serve his master and notes that an employer may still be liable where an employee departs from instructions for his own purposes if such departure is undertaken with the intent to serve his employer. Id. cmts. a & b. Section 236 addresses the circumstance where an employee acts with two purposes--one personal and one to further the business of the employer--and imputes liability even if the predominant motive of the servant is personal. Id. § 236 & cmt. e; see also id. cmt. a (including liability for the act and its manner of performance for objects in conflict with employer's). 4 34 Without relying upon the Restatement, Texas case law has found an employer liable where the employee has mentally turned aside from the employer's business. In H.T. Cab Co. v. Ginns, 280 S.W.2d 360, 362 (Tex.Civ.App.--Galveston 1955, writ ref'd n.r.e.), a cabdriver shot a passenger in a dispute over the amount of a fare. The court accepted that the cabdriver was humoring his own spite in shooting the passenger, but it sustained a jury verdict finding that the cab driver was acting within the scope of his employment when he shot the passenger. Id. at 365. In Houston Transit Co. v. Felder, the Texas Supreme Court also sustained a jury verdict imputing liability to the employer of a bus driver who assaulted another motorist who had run into the bus. 208 S.W.2d at 881. Although the bus driver stated that his attack was in direct response to the other driver's comments and because the other driver put his hands on him, the court sustained the jury verdict because the attack was so closely connected with the performance of the bus driver's duty to collect information from the other driver. Id. at 881; see also Hagenloh, 247 S.W.2d at 241 (citing cases where no liability could be imputed because the assault was actuated by personal animosity and ... there was no close relation between the assault and the performance of the duties of the employment (emphasis added)).
35 For an employer to be liable for defamation by its employee in Texas, the defamatory statement must be (1) referable to a duty owed by the employee to the employer and (2) made while the employee is in the process of discharging that duty. Texam Oil, 436 S.W.2d at 130. Texas courts have had no difficulty using this rule to shield employers from liability where no duty to the employer was being discharged. In Wagner v. Caprock Beef Packers Co., the Texas Supreme Court found no duty upon which to impute liability. 540 S.W.2d at 305. In Wagner, a plant manager called other employers on his own initiative and defamed a worker who had resigned. Id. at 304. The company no longer had any duty to its departed employee that the plant manager could have been discharging for the company. Therefore, no duty existed to make the unsolicited statements. Id. at 305. In Seifert v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 567 S.W.2d 77, 78 (Tex.Civ.App.--El Paso 1978, no writ), a fellow employee responded to requests for references from prospective employers and allegedly defamed a former employee. No liability was imputed to the employer because the fellow employee had no authority or duty to the employer which was being discharged when the statements were made. Id. at 79; see also Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co. v. Majure, 176 Miss. 356, 167 So. 637, 638 (1936) (finding manager's statements made to direct blame away from his wrongdoing and onto a terminated employee could not be imputed to employer because the manager made the slanderous statements regarding the termination of an employee-at-will, about which the employer had no duty to give information to third parties two weeks after the termination), cited with approval in Wagner, 540 S.W.2d at 305. 36 Texas courts also have had no difficulty imputing liability under the defamation rule. In Texam Oil, the Texas Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court's holding that statements made by the director of a company that an employee was stealing from the company were within the scope of employment and thereby allowing liability to be imputed to the company. 436 S.W.2d at 130 (affirming Texam Oil Corp. v. Poynor, 431 S.W.2d 802 (Tex.Civ.App.--El Paso 1968, writ ref'd n.r.e.)). The statements were made in a business meeting and later to the same audience at a social occasion where no business was conducted or discussed. Texam Oil, 431 S.W.2d at 805. The appellate court found that the statements were made in connection to the director's continuing investigation of the thefts and were therefore within the scope of employment. Id. In Hooper v. Pitney Bowes, Inc., supervisors in a company slandered an employee while investigating possible improprieties by the employee. 895 S.W.2d at 775-76. The supervisors' duties included controlling the activities of the employee and hiring and firing employees. The supervisors made all of the statements in the course of their investigation. Id. at 776-77. Based upon these two facts, the court found that the jury's verdict that the statements were outside the scope of employment was against the great weight of the evidence. Id. at 777. The court found that evidence that the investigation was conducted in a way of which the employer would not approve did not bar the employer's liability because the activities of the supervisors were of the kind that a supervisor was expected to conduct. Id. In Ryder Truck Rentals, Inc. v. Latham, 593 S.W.2d 334, 336 (Tex.Civ.App.--El Paso 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.), an employee of Ryder slandered Latham by saying that he was an incompetent truck driver and that he abused Ryder's equipment. The court found that Ryder was liable for its employee's statements because they were referable to the employee's duties to deal with customers, refuse to rent to unfit drivers, and set forth reasons for their refusal and because they were incident to the discharge of these duties. Id. at 337. 37 This court previously addressed Texas employer liability for defamation in the context of the Westfall Act in Williams v. United States, 71 F.3d at 504-07; see also Wells, 474 F.2d at 840 (applying the Texam Oil defamation rule in the usual respondeat superior context and finding no employer liability because no duty was being discharged). In Williams, a congressman allegedly defamed someone during an interview with the press. Id. at 504. In applying the general rule, we analyzed the case with respect to the congressman's duty to make public statements about public issues in serving and responding to his constituency. Id. at 507. The Williams court affirmed the district court's substitution of the United States under the Westfall Act because the statements were made in discharging his duties. Id. Under the Texam Oil defamation rule, the court would have undoubtedly reached the same result.
38 According to the stipulated facts, both Sarabyn and Royster made inconsistent statements that allegedly defamed Rodriguez to the media and to the investigators, including Congress. Rodriguez also alleges that Royster made similar inconsistent statements to other ATF agents. Each type of statement will be considered in turn. 39 Both Sarabyn and Royster were authorized to speak to the media on behalf of the ATF, and speaking to the media regarding the raid on the Branch Davidian compound was part of their job responsibilities. Because of this specific authority, both Royster and Sarabyn had a duty to the ATF to speak to the media regarding the raid. Any statements they made to the media were incident to their discharge of this duty and were within the scope of their employment by the ATF, and thus their employment by the United States. 40 All of the allegedly defamatory statements made by Sarabyn and Royster to investigators, including any statements made to Congress, were made in interviews or in testimony that the ATF required of each of them. The ATF directed them to speak to investigators and to cooperate in the investigations. This directive created a duty, if one did not already exist. The statements made to the investigators were incident to the discharge of this duty. 41 Royster's statements to other ATF agents about the raid and whether the element of surprise was lost were made either at the direction of his superior, ATF Associate Director Hartnett, or to ATF agents whom he supervised. In both cases, he had a duty. One was imposed by Hartnett's instructions; the other was inherent in his supervisory position to keep the agents working under him informed. In the discharge of these two duties, he made the allegedly defamatory statements. 42 Rodriguez argues that Sarabyn and Royster were acting purely from personal motives in making the statements in order to direct scrutiny away from their mistakes in the raid on the Branch Davidian compound. As discussed above, purely personal motives would not necessarily take them outside the scope of their employment because the making of the statements was so closely tied to the discharge of their duties to the ATF to speak to the press, investigators, and other ATF agents. That the statements were made to deflect scrutiny from themselves is not dispositive. See Wagner, 540 S.W.2d at 305 (citing with approval Majure, 167 So. at 638 (finding that manager's statements were made to direct blame away from his wrongdoing and onto a terminated employee and analyzing the case based upon a lack of duty)). Additionally, that the agents might lie to protect themselves could be an anticipated abuse of their authority. Cf. Aversa, 99 F.3d at 1212 (noting that the Department of Justice reasonably could anticipate that an [Assistant U.S. Attorney] entrusted with [the power to inform the public about arrests, indictments, and convictions] might abuse it). 43 Rodriguez also argues that lying serves no legitimate purpose of the ATF and therefore could not be on behalf of the ATF and within the scope of employment. Torts rarely serve the legitimate purposes of any employer. However, as discussed above, acts contrary to the employer's express wishes can be imputed to the employer, and by definition, defamation includes lying. See BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 417 (6th ed. 1990) (defining defamation: An intentional false communication, either published or publicly spoken, that injures another's reputation or good name.). As discussed above, Texas courts have formulated and applied a special rule for defamation by an employee to impute liability to an employer. See, e.g., Texam, 436 S.W.2d 129; Hooper, 895 S.W.2d 773; Ryder Truck Rentals, 593 S.W.2d 334. The existence of these cases and of the Texam Oil defamation rule demonstrates that lying can be imputed to an employer in Texas. 44 Under the Westfall Act, state law determines whether the conduct was within the scope of employment. Garcia, 62 F.3d at 127. Once the conduct is determined to be within the scope of employment, the United States is liable, subject to the limitations of the FTCA, like any other employer. See Westfall Act, Pub.L. No. 100-694, sec. 2(a)(2), 102 Stat. at 4563 (1988) (The United States, through the [FTCA], is responsible to injured persons for the common law torts of its employees in the same manner in which the common law historically has recognized the responsibility of an employer for torts committed by its employees within the scope of their employment.). Therefore, lying may be within the scope of employment of a federal employee under the Westfall Act. 45 Rodriguez's argument that nondefamatory statements made by the defendants were within the scope of employment but defamatory statements made immediately before, after, or between nondefamatory statements are outside the scope of employment does not pass muster under Texas law. Sarabyn and Royster did not alternate between the ATF's business and turning aside from that business as they moved from sentence to sentence in their statements. Their statements to investigators, the press, and other agents were actuated by their duties to the ATF because they were directed by the ATF to speak to the press, the investigators, and other agents. From the stipulated facts, it is at least conceivable that Sarabyn and Royster could have thought misguidedly that they were protecting the ATF, as a whole, from embarrassment at the same time as they were protecting themselves. The ATF was under investigation as much as any one agent in the investigations into the raid. Even though the ATF would not have approved of making false statements to the press, investigators, or other agents, under Texas law, liability would be imputed to the ATF under the circumstances here. The statements made here are of the kind that these agents were authorized and expected to make and were closely connected to the performance of their duties; therefore, as in Texam Oil, Hooper, Houston Transit, and H.T. Cab, the statements are within the scope of their employment. 5 46 We reverse the district court's denial of the motions for certification that Sarabyn and Royster were acting within the scope of their employment by the United States. In relation to the acts alleged in this appeal, Royster was acting within the scope of his employment for the entire period, and Sarabyn was acting within the scope of his employment except during the fifty-four-day period of his termination from the ATF as discussed below. That this decision may result in Rodriguez being deprived of a remedy and Sarabyn and Royster avoiding the consequences of their allegedly tortious actions is unfortunate, if not distasteful, but Congress has chosen to grant immunity to federal employees in this situation. 47