…and everyone except your spouse knows it. Someone at the office decides to tell your spouse. Later, your spouse comes to the office and starts shooting people. You, your lover, and maybe someone who gets in the way. Now, the question: could the person who told your spouse be held legally responsible for the deaths or injuries?
I ask this because there’s a married woman having an affair with another worker (who, BTW, just got out of prison for murder!) where I work.
I personally don’t care what they do, but I don’t want to end up as an innocent bystander should the worst case scenario play itself out.
My opinion? That’s silly. But I do find it interesting that you’d rather lay the blame on the person who “ratted them out,” rather than the CHEATING SPOUSE.
But regardless, the person who did the shooting is the person at fault. I would have thought that was a no-brainer.
There is some case law that backs the notion that the tattler wouldn’t have to pull the trigger, only that they knew that their actions would result in indirect harm.
I’m not a legal scholar and these are mostly WAG’s, but I think that determining the guilt of the “tattler” would depend on whether the tattler knew that informing the spouse would result in a criminal act. If the tattler knew, then he/she could probably be held as an accessory before the fact. I think the prosecutor would have a hard time getting a conviction in this type of case unless the tattler had some ulterior motive, i.e. he/she was the “other” spouse, or stood to profit within the company.
It would be hard to prove intent in a criminal trial. It would be much easier to find fault in a civil suit. So possibly no jail, but they might lose the house. If the person telling the spouse had a relationship other than a co-worker of the cheater (friendly or more), that would complicate matters greatly. Would need more info to form any real opinion though.
I agree with the other posters who said that the “tattler” could be held responsible to some extent if s/he was aware of the propensity to violence that existed (in any party).
Second…someone said that they found it interesting that the OP blamed the tattler, not the cheater. I think the OP wasn’t placing all the blame there but just wondering if some of the legal fault might be with the tattler.
Last, you really can’t always sue for whatever you like - you have to plead some sort of cause of action. You can file a complain alleging damn near anything but no guarantee that you’ll get your day in court if it’s nuts.
I have handled a similar lawsuit. I have also handled claims where this took place and have seen our employees, sot/shot at in this situation.
Yes, a suit could be brought against the tattler and the employer. THe employer could deny the work comp claim as an “imported hazard” and claim that it did not arise out of the course of employment. That would remove exclusive remedy and permit a third party claim to go forth.
The plaintiff could argue that:
a) the action was forseeable
b) it was preventable
c) action could have been taken to remove the hazard.
“a)” is the hardest part to prove, but the suit is not unforseeable.
I had a case where an employee abducted a bystander near the employer, raped her. Then she go away and someone stopped to help her. THe employee shot the samaritan. Suit was brought by the samaritan against the employer for not forseeing this behavior in their employee and having him pre-emptively arrested.
anything is possible with a good, liberal, greedy plaintiff atty.