Court Opinion

ID: 9748464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 16:02:28.580458+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:35.586785
License: Public Domain

CANTIL-SAKAUYE, J., Dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent. The distinguishing fact in this case from the cases cited by my colleagues is that plaintiff’s complaint alleged the City of Sacramento (City) had a policy that *135made sexual assault by firefighters foreseeable. Thus, my disagreement lies not in the case law as analyzed by my colleagues, but rather that in this summary adjudication procedure, the City ignored allegations in the complaint that, in my opinion, made sexual assault by firefighters foreseeable.
Plaintiff’s complaint alleged the City had a policy that made sexual assault by firefighters foreseeable.
The complaint alleged “The Defendant CITY and Defendant FIRE DEPARTMENT have had policies in place where captains and firefighters were permitted to take fire trucks and engine trucks to bars and parties, and with captains present, pick up on women and take women on their fire trucks. The City of Sacramento and Sacramento Fire Department firefighters took advantage of their status as firefighters and the post 9/11 public sentiment perception that firefighters are ‘heroes.’ They abused their authority by picking up women and drinking on the job. [][] This practice of drinking on the job and picking up women [on the job] has been in place for years and has been known by Defendant CITY and Defendant FIRE DEPARTMENT Administration. These internal policies and practices of taking fire trucks, while on duty, to bars to pick up on women put in motion a chain of events wherein firefighter Defendant MITCHELL and other firefighters felt that it was permissible to engage in conduct such as that which led to the events where Plaintiff Jane Doe was sexually assaulted.”
A motion for summary judgment must respond to the allegations of the complaint. (Laabs v. City of Victorville (2008) 163 Cal.App.4th 1242, 1258 [78 Cal.Rptr.3d 372].) In moving for summary adjudication, the City did not respond to this allegation.
Generally, an employer will not be held vicariously liable for sexual assault by an employee because the assault is personally motivated and those motivations are “not generated by or an outgrowth of workplace responsibilities, conditions or events.” (Lisa M. v. Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital (1995) 12 Cal.4th 291, 302 [48 Cal.Rptr.2d 510, 907 P.2d 358].) In Lisa M., however, the court declined to hold that sex crimes are never foreseeable outgrowths of employment. (Id. at p. 300.) A sexual tort will be considered engendered by employment only if its motivating emotions are fairly attributable to work-related events or conditions. (Id. at p. 301.)
The majority contends sexual assault would not be typical or broadly incidental to the employer’s enterprise as a matter of law, even if the alleged policy existed. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 133, fn. 2.) Generally, whether an employee’s tortious act was within the scope of employment is a question of fact. (Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles (1991) 54 Cal.3d 202, 213 [285 Cal.Rptr. *13699, 814 P.2d 1341] (Mary M.); Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc. (1986) 41 Cal.3d 962, 968 [227 Cal.Rptr. 106, 719 P.2d 676].) It becomes a question of law only when the facts are undisputed and no conflicting inferences are possible. (Mary M., supra, at p. 213; Perez v. Van Groningen & Sons, Inc., supra, at p. 968.) In finding the sexual assault not within the scope of employment as a matter of law, despite the alleged policy of permitting firefighters to drink and pick up women while on the job, the majority ignores the role of alcohol in sexual assault cases. Given the dispute as to what happened on the firetruck and the uncertainty as to the policy, there is at least a triable issue of fact whether the assault was fairly attributable to the work conditions under which, allegedly, firefighters were permitted to take trucks to bars, drink and pick up women.
In considering whether vicarious liability should apply, courts consider the three policy goals of the respondeat superior doctrine. These three policy goals are: “(1) to prevent recurrence of the tortious conduct; (2) to give greater assurance of compensation for the victim; and (3) to ensure that the victim’s losses will be equitably borne by those who benefit from the enterprise that gave rise to the injury.” (Farmers Ins. Group v. County of Santa Clara (1995) 11 Cal.4th 992, 1013 [47 Cal.Rptr.2d 478, 906 P.2d 440] (Farmers Ins. Group).)
I agree that absent the allegation of a policy permitting firefighters on duty to go to bars, drink and pick up women, the facts of this case would not favor the imposition of vicarious liability. However, the presence of the policy allegation, which the City has failed to dispute, changes the outcome of the analysis.
In a motion for summary adjudication, taking into account the alleged policy, which we must since it was ignored by the City, the policy goals of respondeat superior favor imposition of vicarious liability. Imposing vicarious liability would lead to adoption of precautionary measures. The most obvious precautionary measure available is to change the policy. Compensation for the victims is appropriate for the same reasons set forth in Mary M., supra, 54 Cal.3d 202, 215-216, where sexual misconduct by a police officer was at issue. This case is distinguishable from Farmers Ins. Group, where the plaintiff had an alternative remedy under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.). (Farmers Ins. Group, supra, 11 Cal.4th at p. 1016.) Finally, it is equitable to have the costs of alleged policy, which led to the sexual assault, borne by the entity that benefits from the policy. If it is true that the City has the policy permitting firefighters to go to bars, drink and pick up women, the City presumably had determined the policy has some benefit. It is only fair that the City bear the costs of losses attributable to that policy.
*137This case is before us on summary adjudication and the City has not attempted to dispute the allegation of the policy. Whether an employee has acted within the scope of employment is a question of fact unless “the relationship between an employee’s work and wrongful conduct is so attenuated that a jury could not reasonably conclude that the act was within the scope of employment. [Citations.]” (Mary M., supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 213.) Given the allegation of the policy, I continue to believe we cannot say, as a matter of law, that the wrongful conduct alleged here was so attenuated.
Appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied November 10, 2009, S176223.