This article updates and continues after articles posted here on September 27, 2013 and September 30, 2013.
Negligent hiring. Negligent supervision and retention. Vicarious liability. These and other legal issues are embedded as it were in the potential liability claims growing out of the Washington Navy Yard killings. They affect the potential array of insurance coverage issues that may arise, including and depending on whose insurance policies are at issue and what kinds of insurance coverage if any they may provide.
The Washington Navy Yard mass murderer worked for a subcontractor of Hewlett Packard. The murderer's mother told his bosses a month before the murders that the murderer was paranoid and "most likely needed therapy." The subcontractor kept the paranoid man on the job. The results became 12 dead people, 13 counting the murderer when he killed himself.
Hewlett Packard terminated the subcontractor as a result of the subcontractor's advance knowledge of the murderer's mental problems and the subcontractor's apparent inaction notwithstanding this knowledge before the murders occurred. HP essentially seems to contend that it should therefore be absolved from any legal liability for the murderer's murders at the Navy Yard.
The subcontractor, for its part, reported that Hewlett Packard was "fully aware" of this man's mental problems. See Serge F. Kovaleski, "Supervisors of Gunman Were Told of Issues / Report of Inquiry in Washington Case" p. A10, col. 6 (New York Times Nat'l ed., Saturday, October 5, 2013).
The worm turns on the liability issues, as they say.
The insurance coverage questions will not be far behind.
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