Fortunately, Negligent Entrustment is not extremely common in the telecommunications industry. That said, it is growing in both frequency of occurrence and severity of loss.
Negligent entrustment is a cause of action in tort law that arises where one party is held liable for negligence because they, in the opinion of the court, negligently provided another party with a dangerous instrumentality, and the entrusted party caused injury to a third party with that instrumentality. This cause of action most frequently arises when one person allows another to drive their automobile. There are five components to Negligent Entrustment; (1) that the owner (employer) entrusted the vehicle to the driver; (2) that the driver was unlicensed, incompetent or reckless, (3) that the owner/employer knew or should have known that the driver was unlicensed, incompetent or reckless; (4) that the driver was negligent in the operation of the vehicle; (5) that it was the driver’s negligence that caused the damages.
Under Rule 404 of the Federal Rules of Evidence (F.R.E.), evidence of a person’s character or a trait of his character is not admissible to prove he acted in conformity with his character on a particular occasion. However, as an exception, F.R.E. Rule 405(b) allows a person’s character to be admitted in evidence to prove conduct when the character or trait of character of a person is an essential element of a charge or defense such as in the case of negligent entrustment.
Here are some things you can do to limit your exposure to negligent entrustment claims:
· always choose well-trained, responsible, top quality drivers for your
company or organization,
· put into regular practice requirements such as documented vehicle policy
tests, comprehensive driver evaluations, and
· Provide professionally developed driver training programs.
Included is an excellent resource from QBE for discovering more about negligent entrustment, and how to be proactive against exposures in your company. UNITEL is always available to help with any questions regarding this or other Risk Management questions.