Virginia: Motor Carrier’s Stipulated Vicarious Liability to Cut Off Claim for Negligent Hiring

SUMMARY OF AMICUS BRIEF FILED 10/31/2023

TIDA and the American Trucking Association (“ATA”) joined together in filing an amicus curiae brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a trucking company and its driver who won a defense verdict in federal court in Lynchburg, VA. TIDA and ATA argued in favor of the trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment and exclude from trial the evidence of negligent hiring liability when the defendant trucking company stipulated that its driver was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the accident.  In the jury trial, the jury found that the driver was not negligent and returned a defense verdict, whereupon the plaintiff appealed.  In the past, the Supreme Court of Virginia has not ruled on whether a stipulation of agency precludes a claim for negligent hiring.  In its amicus brief in Le Doux, TIDA and ATA argued that liability for negligent hiring of a tortfeasor developed in Virginia law for cases where a principal’s respondeat superior liability is uncertain.  In cases where it is stipulated that the principal will be liable for any wrongful act of the agent, that need for negligent hiring liability no longer exists.  TIDA and ATA also argued that it is good policy for a stipulation of agency to preclude a claim for negligent hiring, since it prevents claimants from presenting evidence of prior bad acts of an employee to inflame a jury and lead it to find against the employee and employer regardless of whether the employee did anything wrong in the motor vehicle accident itself.  The TIDA member counsel of record on the amicus brief is Gibson S. Wright and D. Cameron Beck, Jr. of the McCandish Holton, P.C. in Richmond, Virginia.

Download the AMICUS brief