SAN DIEGO COUNTY CIVIL LIABILITY REVERSED FOR "AMERICAN BEAUTY" CONVICTED OF MURDERING HUSBAND
In case where employee took toxic materials from her employer and used them to murder her husband, trial court ruling that defendant-county could be liable in wrongful death damages, and jury award of damages for plaintiffs, are reversed where:
1) the county coworkers of the perpetrator did not owe a duty to the victim and, therefore, county cannot be held vicariously liable for the coworkers' failure to prevent the murder as the coworkers would not be personally liable;
2) a direct claim against a governmental entity asserting negligent hiring and supervision, when not grounded in the breach of a statutorily imposed duty owed by the entity to the injured party, may not be maintained;
3) federal regulations did not impose a mandatory duty actionable within the meaning of Government Code section 815.6 as they do not command specific acts designed to prevent an employee from using embezzled drugs to commit premeditated first degree murder;
4) the particular kind of injury the plaintiff suffered was not the type of injury that the mandatory duty of section 815.6 was designed to protect against.
de Villers v. Co. of San Diego, No. D048974
