Aflac Manager Properly Denied Arbitration in Suit Over Assault

An Aflac Inc. business development manager accused of drugging and raping an independent contractor during a work conference in St. Louis was properly required to face tort claims by her and her husband in court, a divided Eighth Circuit ruled Tuesday.

Jeffrey Hansen couldn’t force Katherine and Jason Anderson to arbitrate their battery, assault, false imprisonment, and loss of consortium claims under an associate’s agreement they signed with Aflac, the 2-1 majority said. It looked to decisions by the Fifth and Eleventh circuits in finding the Andersons’ claims against Hansen didn’t have a “direct relationship” with the couple’s agreement with ...