Doe v. Alsaud

12 F. Supp. 3d 674, 2014 WL 1345319, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47103
District Court, S.D. New York·Decided April 3, 2014·No. No. 13 Civ. 571·Published·Cited by 44 cases

Opinion

OPINION

SWEET, District Judge.

Defendant Saudi Oger Ltd. (“Saudi Oger”) has moved pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) to dismiss the First Amended Complaint (the “FAC”) filed by plaintiff Jane Doe (the “Plaintiff’) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Based upon the conclusions set forth below, the motion is granted, and the FAC is dismissed.

Prior Proceedings

Plaintiff filed her original complaint on January 25, 2013. On February 14, 2013, [676] Plaintiff filed an affidavit of service claiming to have served “Saudi Oger Ltd. d/b/a Hariri Interests” on February 5, 2013. Non-party Hariri Interests moved to dismiss the complaint on April 1, 2013, pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2), 12(b)(5) and 12(b)(6). In her opposition, Plaintiff conceded that Hariri Interests’ argument that it was not a d/b/a of Saudi Oger was “persuasive” and cross-moved to amend her complaint to remove Hariri Interests as a defendant. Plaintiff also admitted that she “lacks any evidence suggesting that Saudi Oger knew or should have known of [defendant Musta-pha Ouanes’ (“Ouanes” or the “Individual Defendant”) ] propensities before he was hired,” and therefore proposed to withdraw her negligent hiring claim. On May 2, Plaintiff and Hariri Interests stipulated to dismiss the complaint against Hariri Interests with prejudice.

Plaintiff filed the FAC on May 7, 2013, removing Hariri Interests from the lawsuit and withdrawing the negligent hiring claim against Saudi Oger and the Prince.

Allegations of the FAC

The FAC contends the following allegations.

On January 26, 2010, defendant Ouanes invited Plaintiff and her female friend to accompany him from a lounge in the West Village to his hotel room at the Plaza Hotel. (FAC ¶24.) At about 5:30 a.m., Plaintiff was drugged by Ouanes (id. at ¶ 29), and awoke some time later to “realize [Ouanes] was raping her” (id. at ¶ 30). In February 2012, after a two-week trial in New York (Manhattan) Criminal Court, Ouanes was convicted of rape and sexual abuse, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. (Id. at ¶¶ 54-55.)

Ouanes was a former employee of defendants Saudi Oger and defendant HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Fahd Alsaud (the “Prince”) at the time of Plaintiffs injury and was living in New York temporarily at the Plaza Hotel as an employee of Saudi Oger’s “VIP unit,” which served as the Prince’s traveling entourage. (Id. at ¶¶ 4, 6.) Saudi Oger “was and remains a global corporation based in Saudi Arabia and one of the leading construction, facilities management, real estate development, and infrastructure project development providers in the world,” and Ouanes was a “trained mechanical engineer” whose specific duties as an employee included ensuring that the “climate” of the floor inhabited by the Prince at the Plaza Hotel was properly regulated. (Id. at ¶¶ 4-5.) In addition, Ouanes’ duties included “luring unsuspecting women” to “gratify the sexual pleasure” of the Prince and his entourage. (Id. at ¶ 5.) At least three employees of Saudi Oger’s VIP Unit were with Ouanes when she was raped in Ouanes’ room (Id. ¶¶ 2-3, 25-29), and DNA evidence suggests that Ouanes was not the only Saudi Oger employee who sexually assaulted the Plaintiff on or about January 26, 2010. (Id. ¶¶ 16, 50.)

The FAC asserts causes of action for negligent supervision (FAC at ¶¶ 58-69), negligent retention (id. at ¶¶ 70-84), and respondeat superior (id. at ¶¶ 85-89) against Saudi Oger. In support of these claims, the FAC alleges that Saudi Oger “knew or should have known of [Ouanes’] predisposition to abusing women, his violent propensities, and of his status as a sexual predator.” (Id. at ¶ 13.)

The Applicable Standard

On a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), all factual allegations in the complaint are accepted as true, and all inferences are drawn in favor of the pleader. Mills v. Polar Molecular Corp., 12 F.3d 1170, 1174 (2d Cir.1993). “The issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled [677] to offer evidence to support the claims.” County of Suffolk, N.Y. v. First Am. Real Estate Solutions, 261 F.3d 179, 187 (2d Cir.2001) (quoting Villager Pond, Inc. v. Town of Darien, 56 F.3d 375, 378 (2d Cir.1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 808, 117 S.Ct. 50, 136 L.Ed.2d 14 (1996)).

To survive a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 663, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1940, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). This is not intended to be an onerous burden, as plaintiffs need only allege facts sufficient in order to “nudge[] their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

Respondeat Superior Is Not Adequately Alleged

To state claim for respondeat superior, a plaintiff must plead facts showing, among other things, that the tortious conduct causing the injury was undertaken within the scope of the employee’s duties to the employer and was thus in furtherance of the employer’s interests. See, e.g., K.I. v. New York City Bd. of Educ., 256 A.D.2d 189, 191, 683 N.Y.S.2d 228 (1st Dep’t 1998) (noting no respondeat superior where tortuous conduct was outside of scope of volunteer’s duties). “An employer will not be held liable under [the doctrine of respondeat superior] for actions which were not taken in furtherance of the employer’s interest and which were undertaken by the employee for wholly personal motives.” Galvani v. Nassau Cty. Police Indemnification Review Bd., 242 A.D.2d 64, 68, 674 N.Y.S.2d 690 (2d Dep’t 1998) (citation omitted). Ouanes’ own deplorable motivations were not part of any conceivable duty he had to Saudi Oger. For this reason, the claim must be dismissed. See Haybeck v. Prodigy Servs. Co., 944 F.Supp. 326, 329 (S.D.N.Y.1996) (Sotomayor, J.) (“[W]here a court takes as true all the facts alleged by plaintiff and concludes that the conduct complained of cannot be considered as a matter of law within the scope of employment, then the court must dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim.”) (citations omitted).

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Doe v. Alsaud, 12 F. Supp. 3d 674, 2014 WL 1345319, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47103 (S.D.N.Y. 2014).

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