Employment Law for Business 6th Edition by Dawn Bennett Alexander ,Laura Hartman

Exercise 4

In 1997, Bobby Randall was hired at Wal-Mart. At the time, Randall was not a convicted felon, but had been previously convicted three times on misdemeanor charges for indecent exposure. At the time of his hiring, Wal-Mart did not have a policy in place that required criminal background checks for employees. In September 2000, Randall fondled a 10 year-old girl while on the job in the Wal-Mart store in which he worked. The girl's mother sued Wal-Mart for negligent hiring, claiming that they should have known of his status as a sex offender through a background check. Was Wal-Mart liable?