Mahan v. Am-Gard, Inc.

841 A.2d 1052, 2003 Pa. Super. 510, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4599
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 24, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 841 A.2d 1052 (Mahan v. Am-Gard, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mahan v. Am-Gard, Inc., 841 A.2d 1052, 2003 Pa. Super. 510, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4599 (Pa. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

POPOVICH, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant Am-Gard, Inc., appeals the judgment entered in favor of Appellee Joan Mahan on October 5, 2001, in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. Following a jury trial, Appellant was found negligent in its hiring of Rodney Darvell Reed (Reed) as an unarmed security guard. Reed was assigned to guard the parking lot of Three Rivers Bank (the bank) on the evening of June 11, 1999. Three days later, during his off-hours, Reed shot and injured Appellee, then a teller at the bank, in the midst of a robbery. Upon review, we reverse.

¶ 2 The relevant facts and procedural history are as follows: On May 21, 1999, Reed interviewed with Appellant for a position as an unarmed security guard. Ja-quelyn Tarr, a member of Am-Gard’s human resources department, interviewed Reed. Ms. Tarr hired Reed on May 27, 1999, based in part on the fact that he had prior experience with the Cauley Detective Agency as an unarmed security guard. 1 Tarr did not verify Reed’s previous employment or perform a criminal records check before hiring Reed as an unarmed security guard. 2

¶ 3 Initially, Appellant assigned Reed to a security detail at Parkview Manor Apartments (Parkview Manor), in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. After working several shifts at Parkview Manor Apartments, Appellant placed Reed on temporary leave because a set of keys for Parkview Man- or’s laundry room were missing. Following a two-day investigation, it was deter *1055 mined that Appellant was not responsible for misplacing, losing, or taking the keys.

¶4 On June 11, 1999, Reed arrived at Appellant’s offices to pick up his paycheck, and he asked his superior, Jeffrey Mid-dlemiss (Middlemiss), if there was a security detail available. Middlemiss indicated that work was available that evening, and he assigned Reed to guard the parking lot at the bank. 3 Reed’s duty was to patrol the bank’s parking lot and instruct drivers that they could not park in the lot for area baseball games. Reed’s assignment did not require him to enter the bank.

¶ 5 Reed arrived at the bank attired in his work uniform, entered the bank, and introduced himself to several tellers, including Appellee, who was working at the teller window closest to the main entrance. Reed asked the tellers where his duty station was, and a teller responded that he was to be in the parking lot, not inside the bank itself. Reed then examined the bank’s security cameras and asked if there was another guard. A teller told Reed that there was not another guard for the bank. After this exchange, Reed left the bank and went to his guard station in the parking lot.

¶ 6 The following Monday, June 14, 1999, at approximately 4:00 p.m., three men, one later identified as Reed, entered the bank armed and in disguise. As Ap-pellee was waiting on a customer, Reed approached her with a weapon drawn and demanded that she put the cash she had in a bag. Appellee opened her cash drawer and attempted to give Reed the money, but she did not have a bag. Appellee attempted to communicate non-verbally to Reed that she did not have a bag. 4 After looking momentarily for a bag, Appellee glanced at Reed and the money on the counter. Reed grabbed the money from the counter with his right hand, showed it to Appellee, smirked, and shot her in the chest. Appellee fell to the ground screaming, and Reed fled the scene.

¶ 7 Appellee underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized for eight days following the incident. Following her discharge, Appellee continued to suffer psychological trauma from the incident and was unable to work in a bank setting. Reed was eventually apprehended by federal authorities and charged with armed bank robbery and related offenses.

¶ 8 Appellee commenced this action against Appellant on September 80, 1999, via praecipe for a writ of summons. Thereafter, Appellee filed a complaint against Appellant on December 7, 1999, alleging that the injuries she suffered as a result of the shooting were the result of Appellant’s failure to investigate Reed’s criminal record and work record prior to hiring Reed as an unarmed security guard. Appellant responded to Appellee’s complaint via an answer and new matter on January 10, 2000. Appellant’s new matter requested dismissal of the suit because Reed was not operating within the scope of his employment when he robbed the bank on June 14th, and, therefore, Appellant contended that it could not be hable for Appellee’s injuries. Appellee also commenced a separate action against Reed in March 2000, which, upon motion of Appel-lee, the trial court consolidated with the present action for purposes of joint hearing and trial on June 26, 2000.

¶ 9 In the midst of pre-trial pleadings, on June 9, 2000, Reed pleaded guilty to *1056 federal charges of armed bank robbery 5 and use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. 6 Reed was sentenced on September 7, 2000, to an aggregate sentence of ten years in federal prison. A default judgment was entered against Reed only in regards to liability on July 21, 2000. 7

¶ 10 Following entry of default judgment against Reed, Appellant filed a motion for summary judgment on November 29, 2000, that alleged that it, in fact, performed criminal background checks on Reed that yielded no information with respect to Reed’s violent nature. Further, Appellant contended that there was no causal link between Appellant’s hiring of Reed and his subsequent criminal activity. The trial court denied Appellant’s motion on February 20, 2001.

¶ 11 The case proceeded through pretrial matters, and, on April 4, 2001, Appel-lee filed an amended complaint which, in addition to its previous allegations of negligence, argued Appellant was negligent per se in that it failed to conform to the fingerprinting and background check requirements of the Private Detective Act of 1953, 22 P.S. §§ 11-49, when it hired Reed. Ap-pellee did not file a new answer to this allegation. 8 A jury trial was conducted from April 30, 2001, until May 11, 2001. At the conclusion of trial, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Appellee and assessed damages against Appellant in the amount of $800,000.00. Appellant filed a timely motion for post-trial relief, and the trial court set a briefing schedule for the motion.

¶ 12 Thereafter, Appellee filed a motion for delay damages, and, on May 24, 2001, the trial court molded the verdict to include delay damages in the amount of $47,422.98. The total damage award was $847,422.98. Appellant’s motion for post-trial relief was not addressed by the trial court within 120 days, and, accordingly, on September 21, 2001, Appellee filed a prae-cipe to record the judgment. However, Ap-pellee’s praecipe stated an incorrect dollar amount for the damage award. Therefore, Appellant filed a motion to amend the judgment to the proper damage award, which the trial court granted on October 5, 2001.

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Bluebook (online)
841 A.2d 1052, 2003 Pa. Super. 510, 2003 Pa. Super. LEXIS 4599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mahan-v-am-gard-inc-pasuperct-2003.