Takeaway: The outcome in this case might have been different if the employer had required the employee to work double shifts or there was some evidence that the employee's fatigue was the result of her employer's policies rather than the result of her child care responsibilities.
When a security guard who fell asleep while driving home from an overnight shift crossed into oncoming traffic and struck another vehicle, her employer could not be held liable for the resulting injuries, a California appeals court ruled.
The guard was not acting within the course and scope of her employment at the time of the accident and the accident was not a foreseeable consequence of the guard's employment, the court said.
The employer provided security guard services at several University of California, San Francisco medical facilities. The security guard worked for the employer from February 2015 to May 2016. She left when she had a baby but reapplied for a position in 2017, requesting the overnight shift.
During her job interview, she disclosed that she did not have daytime child care for her infant, who was then eight months old. The guard was rehired and assigned to work the overnight shift—from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.—five nights per week. The employer did not require the guard to use her car for work and did not dictate how she traveled to and from work.
Using the employee's personal vehicle, the employee's mother often drove her to work and picked her up when her shift ended. The employee...
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has rejected claims that he has withdrawn or rescinded the gazetted renaming of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town, along with other geo...