O'Connor v. McDonald's Restaurants of California, Inc.
California Court of Appeal
269 Cal. Rptr. 101 (1990)
McDonald's employee Evans and several coworkers volunteered unpaid overtime one evening to clean the restaurant ahead of a "spring-blitz" competition, and afterward went to coworker Duffer's home to socialize and discuss their work and employee-manager relations; when Evans left Duffer's home the next morning, he crashed into Martin O'Connor's (plaintiff) motorcycle, seriously injuring him. O'Connor sued McDonald's (defendant) under respondeat superior, arguing Evans remained on a work-related "special errand" at the time of the crash, but the trial court found Evans had completely abandoned any such errand once he went to Duffer's home and granted McDonald's summary judgment.
Whether an employee who, after completing a special work errand, goes to a coworker's home to socialize while discussing work-related matters has completely abandoned the business errand for vicarious-liability purposes, as a matter of law.