NEW JERSEY COURT: EMPLOYER HAS DUTY TO STOP PORN SURFING

According to a recent article in the ABA JOURNAL eREPORT, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, recently ruled that when an employer has actual or imputed knowledge that an employee is accessing pornography at work, the company has a duty to investigate and stop the activity. The case, Doe v. XYC Corp. involved an rather ugly factual situation. An employee of the defendant company was viewing pornographic websites while at work. Supervisors became aware, had a talk with the employee, and instructed him to stop visiting the porn sites. Due to company privacy rules, there wasn't much follow-up after the initial discussion. Sadly, sometime thereafter, the worker took pornagraphic images of his 10 year old stepdaughter and submitted them to a child porn site. The child's mom sued, seeking to have the employer held responsible for the subsequent sexual abuse. She argued that had the company taken more agressive action regarding the inappropriate sites, the abuse might have been prevented. Tough sell. And, not suprisingly, the trial court granted summary judgment, saying that the abuse had taken place inside the home, which was not under the employer's control. In addition, the trial court felt that the employer acted reasonably by instructing the worker to stay away from the porn sites. Mom wasn't satisfied and appealed.

And mom must have known something because the Appellate Court reversed. The Court ruled the company knew or should have known that the employee was looking at porn. The Court went on to note that once they knew about this guy's viewing habits, they should have gotten the police involved or terminated him. But the Court didn't completely endorse plaintiff's case. The opinion indicated that the Appellate Court was troubled by the proximate cause issue. The case was remanded back to the trial court, where the plaintiff, according to the Appellate Court, must prove that the sexual abuse would have been averted if the employer had stopped the porn-viewing at work. Just how precisely the plaintiff can prove that is beyond me. Plaintiff may have won this particular battle, but will likely lose the war.