Opinion ID: 895202
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Negligent-Hiring/Negligent-Entrustment Claim

Text: In a negligent-hiring or negligent-entrustment claim, a plaintiff must show that the risk that caused the entrustment or hiring to be negligent also proximately caused plaintiff's injuries. See Fifth Club, Inc. v. Ramirez, 196 S.W.3d 788, 796 (Tex.2006) (stating [n]egligence in hiring requires that the employer's `failure to investigate, screen, or supervise its [hirees] proximately caused the injuries the plaintiffs allege' (quoting Doe v. Boys Clubs of Greater Dallas, Inc., 907 S.W.2d 472, 477 (Tex.1995))); Schneider v. Esperanza Transmission Co., 744 S.W.2d 595, 596-97 (Tex.1987). To sustain such a claim based on a failure to screen, a plaintiff must show that anything found in a background check would cause a reasonable employer to not hire the employee, or would be sufficient to put the employer on notice that hiring [the employee] would create a risk of harm to the public. Fifth Club, 196 S.W.3d at 796-97. The plaintiff must also prove that the risk that caused the entrustment or hiring to be negligent caused the accident at issue. Schneider, 744 S.W.2d at 597. Therefore, a plaintiff will not succeed on a negligent entrustment or hiring claim where an investigation would not have revealed the risk. See, e.g., Doe, 907 S.W.2d at 477 (finding the failure to prove negligent hiring as a matter of law because screening would not have indicated a specific risk); Fifth Club, 196 S.W.3d at 796 (noting a background check might only have shown that the employee was violating terms of employment with another employer, but not the employee's proclivity for violence). We have said a claim for negligent hiring or entrustment cannot lie if [t]he risk that caused the entrustment to be negligent did not cause the collision, Schneider, 744 S.W.2d at 597, and if a defendant's negligence did no more than furnish a condition which made the injury possible. Doe, 907 S.W.2d at 477. Here, Rodriguez's immigration status did not cause the collision, and was not relevant to the negligent entrustment or hiring claims even if TXI's failure to screen, and thus its failure to discover his inability to work in the United States, furnished [the] condition that made the accident possible. Id. We agree with the court of appeals that neither Rodriguez's status as an illegal alien or his use of a fake Social Security number to obtain a commercial driver's license created a foreseeable risk that Rodriguez would negligently drive the gravel truck. 224 S.W.3d at 914.