Employer Liability For A Suspended-License Employee's Crash

Attorney Answer

Possibly yes. In Texas, a company saying the driver was not allowed to take the car does not by itself end its responsibility. Two separate theories can reach the employer, and the suspended license matters to one of them.

The first theory is vicarious liability. An employer answers for its employee's negligence when the employee was acting in the course and scope of employment. In Painter v. Amerimex Drilling I, Ltd., 561 S.W.3d 125 (Tex. 2018), the Texas Supreme Court set out a two-step analysis: first, whether the person was the company's employee, which turns on the company's right to control the work; and second, whether the act was within the general authority the company gave him, in furtherance of its business, and to accomplish the object for which he was hired. The Court also addressed the coming-and-going rule, under which an employee driving to or from work is usually outside course and scope, and the exception that applies when the driving itself is a task the employer assigned. So the real question is not whether the company approved of a suspended license. It is what the driver was doing for the company at the moment he hit you.

The second theory does not depend on employment at all. Negligent entrustment asks whether the owner of the vehicle handed the keys to the wrong person. Schneider v. Esperanza Transmission Co., 744 S.W.2d 595 (Tex. 1987), states the elements: the owner entrusted the vehicle to an unlicensed, incompetent or reckless driver; the owner knew or should have known the driver was that kind of driver; the driver was negligent on the occasion in question; and that negligence proximately caused the crash. This is where a suspended license does real work. A company that puts an employee in a company car is in a position to check a driving record, and what it should have known is a question a jury can be asked, whatever it says it actually knew.

If both the driver and the company end up as defendants, Texas allocates responsibility by percentage. Under Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 33.013(a) each defendant is liable only for its own percentage of the damages, unless § 33.013(b) applies because that defendant is more than 50 percent responsible. Section 33.001 also bars any claimant who is found more than 50 percent responsible, and § 33.012(a) reduces an award by the claimant's own percentage. That allocation is one reason it usually matters to identify every responsible party early rather than late.

What you can do

1. Keep everything you already have: photographs, the crash report number, medical records and bills, repair estimates, and every letter or email from the company or its insurer.

2. Ask the law enforcement agency that responded for a copy of the officer's crash report, and keep the copy.

3. Write down the name on the company car, any lettering or vehicle number, and anything the driver or the company said at the scene, while you still remember it.

4. Keep going to your medical appointments and keep the bills and records together in one place.

5. Before you give a recorded statement to the company's insurer, ask a Texas lawyer whether you should give one at all.

6. Ask a Texas lawyer to check who actually owned and insured the vehicle, and what the driver was assigned to do that day. That single answer decides which of the two theories fits.

Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) generally requires a personal injury suit to be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues, and the same two years applies to the damage to your vehicle. When that clock started, and whether anything affects it, depends on your specific facts. Have a Texas attorney review the dates in your case rather than relying on any general statement, including this one.