Court Opinion

ID: 9727149
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:21:42.927187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:34.153005
License: Public Domain

ROBB, J.,
concurring with separate opinion.
I concur in the majority opinion, but write separately to address a specific portion of the statute not discussed therein. Indiana Code section 5-2-12-12 describes language which must be included on a copy of the Registry sent to an entity required by section 5-2-12-11:
A person whose name appears on this registry has been convicted of a sex offense or a violent offense against a child or has been adjudicated a delinquent child for an act involving another child that would be a sex or violent offense if committed by an adult. Continuing to employ a person whose name appears on this registry may result in civil liability for the employer.
Given the state of our law on respondeat superior liability, especially the limited interpretation our courts have given the “scope of employment” requirement, it is doubtful that any court would ever subject an employer to civil liability for injuries arising out of the employment of a person whose name appears on the Registry. If inclusion of this language is a legislative attempt to provide the foreseeability of misconduct which might otherwise be found lacking, courts are almost *1047certain to find under our current law that the employee was not acting within the scope of his employment. This is so because no employer is ever going to hire an employee for the express purpose of committing a sex offense. See City of Fort Wayne v. Moore, 706 N.E.2d 604 (Ind.Ct.App., 1999) (Robb, J., dissenting) (majority held that the City was not responsible for a police officer’s attack on a motorist during an ostensible traffic stop because the officer was off-duty, out-of-uniform and in an unmarked car at the time of the stop).
I am left to wonder, then, what was the legislature’s purpose in requiring that this language be included on each copy of the Registry sent to a required entity and what does it mean for respondeat superior liability in the future? I am of the opinion that the “scope of employment” requirement has been construed so narrowly as to render responde-at superior liability virtually nonexistent. I believe that the legislature’s mandate that a warning that civil liability may result if a known sex offender commits misconduct proximate to his employment be included with the Registry bolsters my more expansive approach to “scope of employment” and respondeat superior liability.
Nevertheless, I agree with the majority that the Registry does not violate the ex post facto prohibitions of the state and federal constitutions, and that the Institute’s practice of making the Registry available not just to the required entities is within the dictates of the statute. I therefore concur in the majority opinion.