## Facts

- Richard Solberg, a musician and band leader, and his wife, Dorine Solberg, sued Borden Light Marina, Inc. (BLM), BLM’s president Michael/Michel Lund, and Kevin Munro after Richard Solberg was injured in a boating accident.
- Solberg’s band was scheduled to play two nights at the “Tipsy Seagull,” a floating restaurant and bar.
- The Tipsy Seagull was owned by a separate entity, Barge LLC, but was accessible only by a gangway from BLM’s fuel dock on the marina premises.
- Lund served as BLM’s president and, according to the Solbergs, also had supervisory involvement with the Tipsy Seagull’s operations.
- Lund was not involved in Barge’s day-to-day operations, but he supervised the Tipsy Seagull’s managers and oversaw the hiring of musicians.
- Lund personally hired Solberg’s band and paid the band in cash.
- Lund’s duties for BLM included organizing social events for BLM customers, and Solberg sometimes slept on boats docked at BLM when he played at the Tipsy Seagull.
- Solberg testified that performers at the Tipsy Seagull often received “perks,” including boat rides, food, and lodging.
- BLM encouraged marina customers to visit the Tipsy Seagull and mentioned the venue in BLM advertising.
- After the band played the first night and Lund had finished his tasks for BLM, Lund went out on a recreational boat ride with Solberg and others on a boat owned and operated by Munro.
- During that ride on the Taunton River, the boat struck a submerged rock, and Solberg was injured.
- The Solbergs asserted general maritime law negligence, and Dorine Solberg asserted loss of consortium; as to BLM, the theory depended on vicarious liability tied to whether Lund acted within the scope of his employment with BLM when the outing occurred.

## Issues

1. On BLM’s motion for summary judgment, did the record—viewed in the Solbergs’ favor—permit a reasonable jury to find that Lund was acting within the scope of his employment with BLM when he arranged and participated in the boat ride, such that BLM could face vicarious liability under general maritime negligence?

## Decision

- The court denied BLM’s motion for summary judgment.
- The court concluded that the evidence allowed competing inferences about whether Lund’s conduct was connected to BLM-related responsibilities (including customer social events and activities tied to the Tipsy Seagull engagement) or was purely personal recreation.
- Because scope of employment turned on disputed facts and reasonable inferences from the record, the issue was for a factfinder rather than resolution as a matter of law at the summary-judgment stage.

## Legal Principles

- Summary judgment is appropriate only when there is no genuine dispute of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; the court views the record in the light most favorable to the nonmovant and draws reasonable inferences for that party.
- Under general agency principles applied in the maritime negligence context, an employer may be vicariously liable for an employee’s conduct if the employee acted within the scope of employment.
- Scope-of-employment analysis commonly considers whether the conduct was of the type the employee was employed to perform, occurred within authorized time and space limits, and was motivated at least in part by a purpose to serve the employer.
- When evidence supports more than one reasonable view of the employee’s purpose—business-related customer/performer relations versus a personal “frolic”—summary judgment on vicarious liability is typically not appropriate.

## Conclusion

The court held that, given Lund’s role as BLM’s president, his responsibility for customer social events, his involvement in hiring and paying the band for performances at a venue physically tied to BLM’s dock access, and testimony that boat rides were a common perk for performers, a reasonable jury could find that the outing was within the scope of Lund’s employment; therefore, BLM was not entitled to summary judgment on vicarious liability under general maritime negligence.


Solberg v. Borden Light Marina, Inc. , 2014 WL 4245987 (2014)