A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against a hospital transport service by the family of a Berwyn woman who was allegedly murdered by one of its drivers, with the judge finding the driver was not on the job at the time of the killing.
The dismissal was issued Jan. 15 by Judge Robert Dow Jr., of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The decision threw out a suit by Tara, Eloise and Robert Brooks, siblings of murder victim Tommie Moore.
Moore, 70, and her husband, Ira Moore, 67, were murdered March 30, 2017 in their Berwyn home. Roger M. Scoby, now 42, of Schaumburg, was charged several days later with the slayings. Criminal proceedings are continuing against Scoby, who remains in the Cook County Jail.
Ira Moore was a double amputee and a Vietnam War veteran, who received treatment at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital in suburban Hines. Scoby was a driver for MV Transportation, which is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. MV was contracted with Hines VA Hospital to provide patient transportation. Scoby met the Moores through his job with MV, gaining their trust, according to the suit.
Tommie Moore’s siblings sued MV in April 2018, alleging MV checked Scoby’s background before hiring him, and should have known he had convictions for trespass to a vehicle in 1993 and armed robbery in 1994, the latter crime for which he served 10 years in prison. Given Scoby’s record, MV should have known he had a “propensity for violence” and was not fit to transport patients, plaintiffs claimed.
Further, MV allegedly failed to warn anyone of Scoby’s background and to properly supervise him.
MV filed a motion to dismiss, which convinced Judge Dow to toss the suit.
First, Dow noted plaintiffs conceded Scoby was neither working for MV nor on MV’s premises at the time of the murders, having allegedly gone to the Moore home independent of his job. Second, there is no indication Scoby used a weapon obtained from MV.
“It was not the fact that Scoby provided patient care transportation services that got him into Moore’s house and proximately caused her injuries and death, but rather the fact that Moore befriended Scoby while Scoby was providing such services,” the judge wrote.
“If the Court were to impose liability on defendant under these circumstances, ‘an employer would essentially be an insurer of the safety of every person who happens to come into contact with his employee simply because of his status as an employee,’” Dow said, quoting a 1993 Illinois appellate court decision.
Dow added if he found MV liable, anyone with a record of violent crime, would be “virtually unemployable,” if the employer knew or should have known of the record. Dow reasoned no boss would hire such a person, because the employer would be liable for harm the employee caused anyone with whom the employee had contact through the job.
Dow gave plaintiffs until Feb. 12 to amend their complaint in line with the judge’s dismissal ruling.
Plaintiffs are represented by Shipley Law Group of Chicago.
MV Transportation is defended by the Chicago law firm of Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman.