Advance Auto Parts Defeats Discrimination Liability Case Appeal

Advance Auto Parts Inc. wasn’t legally responsible for an employee’s verbal harassment of a store customer, a US appeals court said, upholding a trial court’s ruling.

Nicolas Tashman sued Advance, alleging a company employee, Kevin L. Doe, had verbally harassed him when he was purchasing a vehicle part and testing a battery, according to an opinion issued by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Monday.

“When Tashman did not sign his name on a form, Doe became angry, saying, among other things, ‘Go back to your damn country, go to your camel country'; ‘you don’t belong in this country'; and ‘I’ll kick your ass,’” the appeals court said. The incident was recorded.

Tashman claimed the employee’s comments were discriminatory because of Tashman’s Arab/Middle Eastern ethnicity, the opinion said. He also asserted that the company was liable for Doe’s conduct under respondeat superior, a legal doctrine which states that an employer is responsible for an employee’s conduct within the workplace.

But, unless the employee’s behavior was intended to benefit Advance Auto, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based company could not be held liable, the three-judge panel said.

The appellate court also found that Advance Auto wasn’t liable for Doe’s actions because Tashman did not claim that the company’s lack of employee supervision or preventative failures directly led to Doe’s verbal assault.

“For an employer to be liable under § 1981 for inadequate disciplinary procedures, these failures must have caused Tashman’s harm,” Judge Duane Benton said, writing for the unanimous panel.

The judges disagreed with Tashman’s claims that the company had endorsed Doe’s behavior by delaying Doe’s employment termination. According to the opinion, the two-month delay to fire Doe is insufficient to show that Advance Auto ratified his conduct.

Judges Raymond Grueunder and Bobby Shepherd joined the decision.

The case is Tashman v. Advance Auto Parts, 8th Cir., No. 22-1949, 3/27/23.