An employer is responsible for an employee’s criminal misconduct only if his/her actions are within the scope of employment. Under the scope of employment, the employer may be liable when the employee acts negligently or intentionally when the action is considered to be doing work for the employer.
However, this only applies if the misconduct is foreseeable and a natural incident of the employment. If the employee’s misconduct departs from the line of his duty, the employer is not liable for his misconduct for that time being, because such actions constitutes as an abandonment of his services.
In the case of N. X. v. Cabrini Med. Ctr., 280 A.D.2d 34, the Plaintiff sued defendant a hospital in New York City after claiming that a doctor, an employee of the hospital sexually abused her while she was recovering from surgery. However New York Appellate Court ruled that Cabrini Medical Center is not vicariously liable for sexual assault committed by one of its surgical residents because such misconduct constitutes as action on personal motives and is a departure from the scope of employment.