Connes v. Molalla Transport System, Inc.

• Decision Date: 29 June 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91SC358,91SC358
• Citation: 831 P.2d 1316
• Parties: , 7 IER Cases 934 Grayce M. CONNES, Petitioner, v. MOLALLA TRANSPORT SYSTEM, INC., a Washington Corporation, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 1316

831 P.2d 1316

61 USLW 2064, 7 IER Cases 934

Grayce M. CONNES, Petitioner, v. MOLALLA TRANSPORT SYSTEM, INC., a Washington Corporation, Respondent.

No. 91SC358.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

June 29, 1992.

Greengard Senter Goldfarb & Rice, James E. Goldfarb, Paul E. Collins, Peter H. Doherty, Denver, for petitioner.

Mark F. Marceaux, Denver, for respondent.

Justice QUINN delivered the Opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision in Connes v. Molalla Transport System, Inc., 817 P.2d 567 (Colo.App.1991), which upheld the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the defendant, Molalla Transport System, Inc. (Molalla), on a negligence claim brought by the plaintiff, Grayce M. Connes, against Molalla for the negligent hiring of a long-haul truck driver who sexually assaulted Connes during the course of transporting freight for Molalla on an interstate trip. The court of appeals held that Molalla had no legal duty to investigate the non-vehicular criminal record of its driver prior to hiring him as an employee. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals and hold that Molalla had no legal duty to conduct an independent pre-hiring investigation of the driver's non-vehicular criminal record under the circumstances of this case.

I.

The basic facts pertinent to the issue before us are undisputed. Molalla is a Washington corporation licensed by the Interstate Commerce Commission to transport goods in interstate commerce, and uses long-haul truck tractors to transport its freight. These truck tractors are self-contained vehicles equipped with extra fuel tanks and a sleeping compartment behind the driver's seat. Molalla instructs its drivers to stay on interstate highways during their trips and to stop only for an emergency, to service the vehicle, to eat, and to sleep. Drivers are not authorized to use hotel or motel accommodations while in transit, but instead are directed to use the sleeping compartment behind the driver's seat at rest stops along the interstate highway system.

Molalla's policy is to seek safe drivers upon whom it can depend to deliver the loads assigned to them and to take care of the equipment entrusted to them. As part of its standard hiring procedure, Molalla conducts a personal interview with each applicant and requires the applicant to fill out an extensive job application form and to produce a current driver's license and a medical examiner's certificate. Molalla also contacts prior employers and other references about the applicant's qualifications and conducts an investigation of the applicant's driving record in the state where the applicant obtained the driver's license.

On November 6, 1987, Terry Lee Taylor applied for employment as a Molalla long-haul driver. Taylor filled out a detailed application form, which included information regarding his prior employments, his current driver's license, his driving experience and record, whether he had ever been convicted of a crime, and other background information. Taylor indicated on the application form that he had no criminal convictions. Taylor was interviewed by the president of Molalla, Fred Magenheimer, who specifically asked Taylor during the interview whether he had been convicted of a crime. Taylor responded in the negative and produced a valid driver's license and medical examiner's certificate from the State of Oregon.

Following the interview, Magenheimer contacted Chester Hahn, one of his valued employees, who had referred Taylor to Molalla. Hahn told Magenheimer that Taylor was an experienced driver with a good driving record. Magenheimer also contacted Taylor's present employer, Harry Hall of H.R. Hall Trucking, Inc. in Oregon. Magenheimer had known Hall for a number of years and considered him trustworthy and candid. Hall told Magenheimer that he considered Taylor to be a good driver, that he took good care of equipment and was dependable, and that he would have no problem in hiring him. Magenheimer also sent an employment verification form to one of Taylor's former employers, L.G.H. Trucking, which responded by stating that Taylor left its employment in May 1987 because of a conflict with the dispatcher and would not be reemployed. Magenheimer decided to hire Taylor as a long-haul driver pending confirmation of Taylor's driving record from the State of Oregon. Several days later Molalla received confirmation of Taylor's Oregon driving record, which showed only one speeding violation and one "logbook" violation.

Magenheimer did not conduct an independent investigation to determine whether Taylor had been convicted of any crime. Although Taylor denied any prior criminal convictions on his application and during his interview, various law enforcement and court records obtained subsequent to the events in question show that Taylor had been convicted of three felonies in Colorado--a 1973 conviction for possession of burglary tools, a 1975 conviction for second-degree forgery, and a 1977 conviction for felony theft--and had been issued three citations for lewd conduct and another citation for simple assault in Seattle, Washington, in 1983 and 1984, and also had been issued a citation for fourth-degree assault and domestic violence in Portland, Oregon in 1985.

On January 28, 1988, approximately three months after Taylor began working for Molalla, he was assigned to transport freight from Kansas to Oregon. While traveling through Colorado, Taylor left the highway and drove by a Holiday Inn where Grace Connes was working as a night clerk. After observing Connes alone in the lobby as he was driving by the motel, Taylor pulled his truck into the parking lot and entered the lobby. Once inside, Taylor sexually assaulted Connes at knifepoint. Taylor was arrested at the scene when a police officer made a routine stop at the hotel. Taylor admitted his sexual attack on the victim, stating that "I need help ... this is the first time I've ever gotten aggressive ... I always thought I could control it."

Connes sued Molalla on the theory of negligent hiring, claiming that Molalla knew or should have known that Taylor would come into contact with members of the public, that Molalla had a duty to hire and retain high quality employees so as not to endanger members of the public, and that Molalla breached its duty by failing to fully and adequately investigate Taylor's criminal background. Molalla denied the allegations of negligence and moved for summary judgment on the basis that it had no legal duty to Connes and, in the alternative, that its investigation of Taylor's background was reasonable under the circumstances. The trial court granted Molalla's motion for summary judgment on the ground that Molalla, in light of its policy against a driver's use of public hotel accommodations and the other conditions of employment, had no reason to foresee that Taylor would commit the sexual assault against Connes even if Molalla had known of Taylor's prior criminal behavior.

Connes appealed to the court of appeals claiming that Molalla had a legal duty to members of the public to use reasonable care in hiring its truck drivers and that its duty included conducting an independent investigation of a potential driver's non-vehicular criminal record. In resolving the duty question, the court of appeals weighed such factors as the risk and foreseeability of harm to members of the public from Molalla's failure to investigate Taylor's criminal background, the burden placed on Molalla to guard against such harm, and the practical consequences of placing that burden on Molalla. After weighing these factors, the court of appeals concluded that Molalla had no legal duty to Connes to investigate Taylor's non-vehicular criminal record and, accordingly, upheld the summary judgment. Connes, 817 P.2d at 572. We thereafter granted Connes' petition for certiorari to consider whether the court of appeals correctly determined that Molalla owed no legal duty to Connes to investigate Taylor's non-vehicular criminal background before hiring him as a long-haul driver. ¹

II.

The elements of a negligence claim consist of the existence of a legal duty by the defendant to the plaintiff, breach of that duty by the defendant, injury to the plaintiff, and a sufficient causal relationship between the defendant's breach and the plaintiff's injuries. E.g., Casebolt v. Cowan, 829 P.2d 352, 356 (Colo.1992); Observatory Corp. v. Daly, 780 P.2d 462, 465 (Colo.1989); Leake v. Cain, 720 P.2d 152, 155 (Colo.1986). A negligence claim will fail if it is predicated on circumstances for which the law imposes no duty of care upon the defendant. E.g., Perreira v. State of Colorado, 768 P.2d 1198, 1208 (Colo.1989); University of Denver v. Whitlock, 744 P.2d 54, 56 (Colo.1987). "A court's conclusion that a duty does or does not exist is 'an expression of the sum total of those considerations of policy which lead the law to say that the plaintiff is [or is not] entitled to protection.' " University of Denver, 744 P.2d at 57 (quoting W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts, § 53, at 358 (5th ed. 1984)). The initial question in any negligence action, therefore, is whether the defendant owed a legal duty to protect the plaintiff against injury. The issue of legal duty is a question of law to be determined by the court. E.g., Casebolt, 829 P.2d at 356; Smith v. City and County of Denver, 726 P.2d 1125, 1127 (Colo.1986); Metropolitan Gas Repair Service, Inc. v. Kulik, 621 P.2d 313, 317 (Colo.1980).

A duty of reasonable care arises when there is a foreseeable risk of injury to others from a defendant's failure to take protective action to prevent the injury. E.g., Palmer v. A.H. Robins Co., Inc., 684 P.2d 187, 209 (Colo.1984). While foreseeability is a prime factor in the duty calculus, a court also must weigh other factors, including the social utility of the defendant's conduct,...