California Court of Appeal

In an action against the designated officer of a real estate brokerage corporation, alleging direct and vicarious personal liability to third parties for harm caused by failure to supervise, the trial court's dismissal is affirmed where: 1) the designated officer's duty to supervise codified in Business and Professions Code section 10159.2 is owed to the corporation, not to third parties, and accordingly, breach of that statute is grounds for administrative discipline against the designated officer by the licensing entity and perhaps an action by the corporation for indemnification, but not an action by third parties; and 2) whether or not a designated officer may be, under traditional agency principles, vicariously liable for the tortious conduct of the employees he or she supervises in an appropriate circumstance, those circumstances are not, and cannot, be alleged here.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/18/2012
• Published 06/18/2012

Judges

• PERLUSS

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel