A California Appellate Court concluded that an employer is not responsible when a former employee causes the death of a customer two years after the employment relationship ended.  In Phillips v. TLC Plumbing, Inc., the court held that an employer owed a former customer no duty of care as to post-termination tortious conduct of a former employee.

TLC Plumbing, Inc. hired James Cain as a plumbing service repairman in 1999.  At the time of hire, the employer knew that Cain had been convicted of a domestic violence and/or arson offense involving his then wife. In 2003, the company sent Cain on a service call to a customer's home on two different occasions.  A month later, TLC fired Cain for misuse of a company vehicle, drug and alcohol use, and apparently threatening a coworker.

Unbeknownst to the employer, Cain had started a social relationship with the customer.  The relationship became romatntic before it was ended in May 2005.  After the customer ended the relationship and applied for a restraining order against Cain, he shot and killed her. Cain was convicted of the customer's murder.

The customer's family sued TLC for the negligent hiring and retention of Cain, but the court held that TLC owed the family no duty of care at the time that Cain shot and killed the customer.  Cain was not employed by TLC at the time he shot and killed the customer and, according to the court, the great weight of case authority supports the conclusion that employers may not be held liable for the posttermination torts of former employees.