In Re Jessica Ferrer, Plaintiff v. Tesfamariam Okbamicael and Colorado Cab Company, L.L.C., Defendants

Summary

The court held that an employer's acknowledgment of vicarious liability for an employee's negligence bars the plaintiff's additional direct-negligence claims against the employer because those claims are redundant and risk duplicative fault allocation and prejudicial evidence. It also rejected an exception for exemplary-damages claims against the employer and upheld the denial of amendment requests against both the employer and employee. Justice Gabriel, joined by Chief Justice Rice and Justice Hood, dissented from dismissal of the direct-negligence claims, reasoning that they alleged independent employer negligence and implicated comparative-fault concerns.