McDonald's liable for prank call

In a Kentucky McDonald's in 2004, a prank caller convinced an assistant manager to interrogate an 18 year old employee. The caller, claiming to be a police officer investigating a theft, convinced the assistant manager to take the employee's clothes and hold her in an office for several hours. A video of the ordeal which includes an interview with the victim and the assistant manager as well as graphic surveillance video of the incident is posted on You Tube. On Friday an appellate court upheld a jury verdict awarding $6.1 million in punitive and compensatory damages to the employee. The opinion is here. This case turns on state law issues, including workers compensation exclusive remedy and employer liability for third party criminal acts. But the killer fact was a hoax caller had duped McDonald's more than thirty times between 1994 and 2004. The court noted that McDonald's had not taken steps to warn or train its managers about the calls.