SJC rules that public transit agency not immune from negligent hiring and supervision lawsuit
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority is not immune from claims it negligently hired and supervised a bus driver with a known history of violence who assaulted and seriously injured a customer.
David H. Rich and Charlotte L. Bednar represented the injured customer before the SJC.
The Court found that the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act does not insulate the MBTA from potential liability based on the claim that it placed the bus driver in a public-facing position despite a pattern of insubordination and anger management issues.
The Tort Claims Act "does not provide immunity to a public employer for its misfeasance in placing an employee with known but untreated anger management issues that manifest in violent and hostile behaviors in a public-facing position," wrote Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt for the unanimous court.
A verbal altercation led the bus driver to chasing after the customer on foot and then severely beating him. As a result, the injured customer suffered a traumatic brain injury that has left him permanently and totally disabled from his usual employment.
Before the assault, the bus driver had a history of anger control problems, including an attack on a passenger that caused the bus he was driving to crash into three parked vehicles. The MBTA had also received reports of the driver’s unsafe driving, hostility toward the public, and insubordination toward his superiors.