An employee uses his work computer to send threatening e-mails. Is the company responsible, just because it owned the computer and network used to send the messages?

Read the facts and decide – Who won this case?

The facts:

While at work, an employee sent threatening e-mails to two people he knew at a different company (telling them, among other things, “I seriously hope you have health insurance because you’re going to get your a– stomped by me and some friends.”) The two people sued for emotional distress — and they included the company in the suit, saying it had provided the tools he used (i.e., the computer and Web connection) and didn’t do enough to prevent him from making the threats.

The employer said:

It had no way of knowing that the man was sending the threatening e-mails at work. It couldn’t have reasonably been expected to monitor every single e-mail that went out through the network. And when it eventually did find out what happened, the guy was fired immediately.

Who won? The employer

Why: There was no evidence that the company knew about the threats when they were first made. Therefore, there could’ve been no reasonable expectation for it to take any action. Also, it had a policy in place against the misuse of electronic resources, and the man was fired as soon as someone found out what happened.

The key in this case was the company’s lack of knowledge about the electronic threats. It would’ve been too big a burden to monitor every single outgoing e-mail, but if the company had somehow gotten wind of the employee’s behavior and looked the other way, it could have been in big trouble.

Cite: Delfino v. Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Tags: e-mail, liability, threats