A complaint can permissibly omit the particular names of the material employees that form the basis of a vicarious liability tort claims suit filed in a fact-pleading jurisdiction. In Denmark v. Williams, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled that the law permits plaintiffs to broadly identify in their negligence action the hospital employees or agents who allegedly performed the negligent acts. Section leaders say the decision provides a plaintiff the ability to pursue her claims, without the threat of immediate dismissal, where she does not know the specific names of the actors.

Fact-pleading states mandate that complaints include all the facts needed to back up their allegations. The court reasoned that, even though Pennsylvania is a fact-pleading state, the purpose of pleadings is to put a defendant on notice of the claims upon which it must defend. Thus, the law allows general employee descriptions at the pleading stage of the lawsuit.

Broad Staff Classifications Adequate in Pleading Vicarious Liability

In Denmark, an administrator sued a hospital on behalf of an estate alleging negligence in the death of the decedent. In his complaint, the plaintiff stated that the “nursing staff, attending physicians, and other attending personnel” acting within the scope of their employment as “agents, servants, or employees” of the defendant caused the decedent’s wrongful death. The trial court struck these allegations and dismissed the case because such general allegations failed to satisfy the pleading requirements of an agency relationship.

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