Whataburger Case Study

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On a night in May 2003, Christopher Dean, an employee of a Whataburger restaurant in northwest Houston was murdered during a robbery attempt. On that night, Gregory Love was scheduled as a manager of the restaurant. He arrived early for the shift allowing another manager, Arthur Murray to leave early. Mr. Dean was also working at the restaurant. He was mentally impaired and had been working for Whataburger (Defendant) for last 14 years. Soon after Mr. Love started his shift, he called Mr. Murray and informed he also needed to leave work and asked Murray if he could leave Dean as in charge. Despite, Mr Murray’s disagreement Love left the restaurant and delegated his managerial power to Dean. At around 4 a.m. three men tried to rob the restaurant. One climbed through …show more content…

Dean filed a suit against Whataburger, Inc alleged the company’s negligence was the proximate cause of the murder of Mr. Dean. The defendant denied the claimant’s allegation mentioning there was a lack of evidence to prove it as a negligent act. The trial court granted summary court for Whataburger, holding that shooting death of a Dean was not foreseeable event and Barton appealed. Issues: Barton appealed with two issues. Whataburger Inc, was not able to conduct a proper hiring process that led the aggravated robbery in the restaurant. Barton also contends that the restaurant was not able to provide a safe working environment accusing the company did not had reasonable security measures to prevent the violent crime. Barton produced the evidence of the Gregory Love’s past criminal history. In 1993, Love was convicted with felony offense for dealing cocaine in the state of Indiana. He was also convicted for another felony offense for nonpayment of child support in Texas in 2002. Before he was hired for the managerial position, his background check was done only for criminal convictions in Harris County. This resulted Whataburger not to locate his criminal

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