In July 2022, a jury in Dallas County awarded $7 billion in punitive damages against a cable company for “systemic safety failures” that included allegedly failing to verify the employment history of an employee who later murdered an 83-year-old customer in her home, while an earlier jury verdict in June 2022 ordered the same company to pay 90 percent of $375 million in compensatory damages awarded to the victim’s family, according to a report from WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas, Texas.
WFAA reported that the jury verdicts found the cable company liable for the stabbing death of Betty Thomas by field technician Roy Holden Jr. in December 2019. Holden had visited Thomas at her house to help with a phone line, returned the next day in a cable company van even though he was off-duty, and stabbed her with a utility knife supplied by the company. After his arrest by police later that month, Holden pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison in April 2021.
The complaint filed by the victim’s family claimed the cable company discontinued an employee screening program used by a previous owner after the business was bought in 2016, and Holden was allegedly hired without verification of his employment history, which would have shown he lied about his previous jobs. A review of Holden’s past employers “would have revealed firings for forgery, falsifying documents, and harassment of fellow employees, according to trial testimony,” WFAA reported.
A North Texas law professor explained in an additional report from WFAA that the cable company had a “heightened duty” to be careful in its hiring process since their employees enter the homes of customers and the company has to ensure the safety of homeowners. “The law imposes duties upon employers. The duty of care in a case like this is greater than the normal duty of care because employees are entering the home. The question then becomes – was that duty of care breached?” he asked.
“Employers have a duty of due diligence in hiring, and if their hiring practices cause harm to co-workers or members of the public, an employer can be sued for negligent hiring,” Attorney Lester Rosen, the founder of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), which is now a service offering of ClearStar, explained in his book titled The Safe Hiring Manual. “Implementing a Safe Hiring Program helps employers practice due diligence in their hiring,” said Rosen, a noted background check expert.
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Thomas Ahearn - Digital Content Editor
Thomas Ahearn is a Digital Content Editor at ClearStar, a leading Human Resources (HR) technology company specializing in background, drug, and health screening for employment. He writes about a variety of topics in the background screening industry including "Ban the Box," class action lawsuits, credit reports, criminal records, drug testing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), HR technology, identity theft and fraud, privacy, social media background checks, and workplace violence.
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