Hollinger v. Titan Capital Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
914 F.2d 1564 (1990)
Securities salesman Emil Wilkowski committed fraud while working with Titan Capital Corp. (defendant) without being properly registered with the National Association of Securities Dealers, and it later emerged that proper registration would have revealed Wilkowski's prior fraud conviction before Titan ever engaged him. Fraud victims (Hollinger) (plaintiffs) sued Titan, but the district court ruled for Titan on the theory that it couldn't be held secondarily liable because Wilkowski was an independent contractor rather than an employee.
Whether a controlling person can be held liable for an injury caused by its representative, regardless of whether that representative was an employee or an independent contractor.