NAFA's New England Chapter Asks, "Am I Giving The Keys To A Risky Driver?"

NAFA's New England Chapter held its March 13 meeting at Dunkin’ Brands in Canton, Mass. The topic of negligent entrustment and vicarious liability consistently is a huge draw and this presentation only confirms fleet managers' concern about the topic.

Fifty-three people came to hear guest speaker Shari Goggin, Esq., Senior Litigation Counsel at Fee, Smith, Sharp, and Vitullo, LLP, Houston, speak about issues that keep fleet professionals awake at night.

The Chapter had a "Bring Your Legal/Risk Manager for Free" promotion to bring more people to the meeting, increasing the visibility of this thorny topic.

In the event of a crash involving a fleet vehicle, who is assigned blame? Who is ultimately responsible for the act and subsequent restitution involving a crash? It is a question every fleet manager needs to carefully consider because, depending on when and where the company vehicle was involved, it could
be you.

In most cases, there are two ways a company can be liable for damages caused by a crash of a motor vehicle it owns, leases, or authorizes its employees to drive:

• Vicarious liability where the company is responsible for the negligent acts of its employees acting
  within the scope of their employment
• Direct negligence by the organization involving a driver's inability to perform driving functions responsibly and allowing them to operate anyway, enabling negligent entrustment through that vehicle the driver used

Companies are responsible for the negligent acts of their employees so long as the employees are acting within the scope of employment. If, in fact, the firm had a belief the employee was incapable of
performing the tasks safely, yet allowed that employee access to commit those tasks, then the company would be directly negligent. Vicarious liability is expensive, but negligent entrustment can cost an organization even more, including damaged reputations and extremely punitive fines.

Fleet professionals at this session got a potent "wake-up call" regarding the subject, and their legal/risk manager peers got a glimpse of the value of fleet managers, as well as the life- and cost-saving decisions they make every business day.

For chapters looking for future topics to present during meetings, this topic always proves to be a big success.

Special thanks to Chapter Chair Peter Belloli, CAFM^®, for material in this article.