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The Cat’S Paw Supervisor: Vance V. Ball State University’S Flexible Jurisprudence, Daniel Leigh
The Cat’S Paw Supervisor: Vance V. Ball State University’S Flexible Jurisprudence, Daniel Leigh
Northwestern University Law Review
It is easier to hold a company liable for workplace harassment perpetrated by a supervisor than by a coworker. In Vance v. Ball State University, the Supreme Court attempted to clarify the crucial yet enigmatic definition of “supervisor.” In doing so, the Court created a definition that early commentators criticized as too narrow and too inflexible to capture the varied structures of the modern workplace. In contrast to those commentators, this Note argues that Vance’s definition is flexible enough to encompass all workplaces. Vance’s definition does this by incorporating the tort concept of proximate causation into employment …