ANDERSON — The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a Madison County judge’s decision that the company that hired Fredrick Baer a month before he killed Cory Clark and her 4-year-old daughter, Jenna, isn’t liable for their deaths.
Baer, Indianapolis, was working as a traffic controller at a construction site in February 2004 when he left work, drove to Clark’s Lapel home and killed the 26-year-old woman and her daughter. Baer was convicted of their murders on May 20, 2005, and sentenced to death the next month.
John W. Clark, Cory’s husband, filed a civil lawsuit in February 2006 on the estate’s behalf against Indianapolis-based Aris Inc., the company that hired Baer, claiming it was negligent in failing to perform a criminal background check. Aris hires traffic controllers for contractors.
Madison Superior Court 2 Judge Jack Brinkman granted judgment in favor of Aris in July 2007, and Clark appealed the ruling.
Despite not checking into Bear’s criminal history — which includes convictions for burglary, theft and receiving stolen property — the appeals court said there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Aris should have suspected Baer, 36, was capable of killing two people while on the clock.
“We simply cannot conclude that Cory and Jenna Clark, who lived miles from the construction site in a residence that Baer was not authorized to enter for any purpose whatsoever, were reasonably foreseeable victims, or that the tragic harm that befell them was reasonably foreseeable,” Chief Judge John G. Baker writes in the nine-page, unanimous opinion of the three-judge panel.
“It would be a closer call if Baer had carjacked a vehicle passing by the construction site, inasmuch as it could be argued that the vehicle’s owner would be a more foreseeable victim than the Clarks,” the opinion continues.
Baer remains on Indiana’s death row in Michigan City. His execution date has not yet been set.
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8:48 p.m.: Appeal denied in Baer civil case
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