re: Montana couple sues Albertsons after knife slashing

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But his past doesn't really matter anyway. He could be a straight A student and valedictorian of his college MBA class. If he assaults someone on property while at work, the store should be liable for that, at least partly. It's their employee.

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In general, at least in Louisiana and I'm sure most states, employers are only liable for their employee's negligent acts. That the employee was engaged in something unrelated to the company's interests (like criminal activity) would be used as a defense to defeat employer liability. I'd argue that Albertson's knew or should have known though that this guy was a danger to their customers

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There should be lawsuits when the entity involved is at fault.

How is Albertsons at fault here?

Would they still be at fault if it happened on their property and he wasn’t an employee?

What about actions he takes off of their property during his time as an employee?

What about the actions of non-felon employees? The fact that he is a felon seems to be the driving force of many people’s arguments.

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No one said Albertsons is at fault. However, the potential for some fault is very valid until proven otherwise.

With your logic, what is the point of conducting a background check? Example... Sure the convicted pedophile raped a kid while he was working at this daycare, but shouldn't the victim sue the person who committed the crime and not the daycare.
Back to reality....
If an investigation reveals they did their due diligence and the guy had no history of violence, then Albertsons will likely be off the hook. However, if it reveals a history of violence, then the question will be how long ago, what exactly was it, what steps has this dude taken to correct his life, etc? No one here on the OT knows any of this. If you still can't see the potential fault here, I don't think you can be helped. What if the guy's record has a recent history of him assaulting someone with a knife? Based upon the view point you presented, you still don't think Albertsons would be at fault.

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For instance, what if it was at night and there were no lights? What if there was a history of knifings in the parking lot that the property owner knew about but took no steps to alleviate?

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If if and buts were candy and nuts it would be Christmas every day.

Pretty safe to say there wasn't a systemic issue of employee parking lot knifings.

What if it was during the daytime? Lights wouldn't be the issue. Should they be liable for not ensuring everyone has sunglasses? I mean the sun could get in their eyes causing them to not be able to see the knifer.

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This all happened in the parking lot? Why did the “victim” stick around long enough for the attacker to leave, get a knife and come back to stab him? Why didn’t he get in the car and drive away when the guy went to get a knife.

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There has to be more to this story than what was published.

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I wonder if he was a "ban the box" hire.

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Not sure if Montana has that.

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Everyone on here agrees with this statement. However, what is reasonable to hold a business accountable for is conducting a proper background check on their associates who directly interact with others.

Whether they did or not, will come out during the litigation. If it turns out they did find a bad history and still hired him, or they didn't conduct a thorough check and hired him by mistake, how is Albertsons not liable to some degree?

If they did do a proper check and it came back clean, showing no signs of this guy to ever do something like this, then I don't see how Albertsons is accountable.

Albertsons should be accountable for what they did or didn't do and nothing more.

If the results of this impacts future violent convicts of getting employment after prison, well good, it damn well should.

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Most do not want to agree with this for some odd reason.

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If I get arrested for drunk driving and kill someone this weekend, my company shouldn't be liable. If I walk into a conference room tomorrow and stab someone in a meeting, I'd assume my company would be liable for that. It doesn't mean it's "Albertson's's fault," but they are liable for their employees. At least in my (very non-) legal opinion.

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I get that. I'm more of a punish the person who did the crime. Doesn't work out that way because you won't get much from an individual.

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Shane Roy Davis, on parole

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But he is rehabilitated tho?

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he was a company representative acting on their behalf

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I get what you are saying but I'm pretty sure Albertsons frowns upon their employees knifing customers. Not sure he was acting on their behalf.