Legal Environment of Business 8th Edition by Henry Cheeseman

Exercise 5

Tort Liability Ray Johnson and his 8-year-old son David were waiting for a "Walk" sign before cross­ing a street in downtown Salt Lake City. A truck owned by Newspaper Agency Corporation (NAC) and oper­ated by its employee, Donald Rogers, crossed the inter­section and jumped the curb, killing David and injuring Ray. Before reporting for work on the evening of the accident, Rogers had consumed approximately seven mixed drinks containing vodka and had chugalugged a 27-ounce drink containing two minibottles of tequila. His blood alcohol content after the accident was 0.18 percent.
Evidence showed that the use of alcohol and marijuana was widespread at NAC and that the com­pany made no effort to curtail such use. Evidence fur­ther showed that NAC vehicles were returned with beer cans in them and that, on one occasion, an NAC super­visor who had observed drivers smoking marijuana had told the drivers to "do it on the road."
Ray Johnson sued Rogers and NAC for the wrongful death of his child, David, and physical injury to Ray. Is NAC liable? Johnson v. Rogers, 763 P.2d 771, 1988 Utah Lexis 81 (Supreme Court of Utah)