Shari L. Martin v. Thomas A. Tovar, Individually and In His Official Capacity, and City of Muscatine, Iowa, 991 N.W.2d 760

On the night in question, Muscatine police officer Thomas Tovar gave intoxicated passenger Shari Martin a courtesy ride to her hotel after her driver was arrested; Tovar followed her to the room and raped her.
Forensic testing later found Tovar’s seminal fluid on hotel bedding and Martin’s clothing; investigators concluded Tovar lied and turned off recording devices to conceal the assault.
Tovar was criminally convicted of third-degree sexual abuse of an incapacitated person and his conviction was affirmed on appeal.
Martin sued Tovar and the City of Muscatine; all claims against the City were based on vicarious liability. The City moved for summary judgment.
The district court granted summary judgment for the City, holding Tovar’s conduct fell outside the scope of employment and rejecting Martin’s request to impose liability under an aided-by-agency theory; the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Tovar’s sexual assault was within the scope of employment for vicarious liability	Martin: misuse of police authority was foreseeable and Tovar’s position enabled the assault, so it falls within scope	City: the rape was an independent, egregious departure from duties and served only Tovar’s personal aims	Held: Not within scope — assault was an independent course of conduct severing employer liability
Whether City can be vicariously liable under an aided-by-agency theory even if act was outside scope	Martin: Restatement (Second) §219(2)(d) (aided-by-agency) supports liability because employment aided the tort	City: aided-by-agency would swallow scope limits and Iowa statute limits municipal liability to acts within scope	Held: Court declined to adopt broad aided-by-agency theory; refused to extend vicarious liability beyond scope-based rule

Godar v. Edwards, 588 N.W.2d 701 (Iowa 1999) (scope-of-employment analysis rejecting vicarious liability for a school official’s sexual abuse)
Sandman v. Hagan, 154 N.W.2d 113 (Iowa 1967) (scope-of-employment principles on deviations from authorized conduct)
Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998) (limited application of agency-aided theory in Title VII supervisor liability)
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998) (same as Ellerth; limits on vicarious employer liability under Title VII)
Haskenhoff v. Homeland Energy Solutions, LLC, 897 N.W.2d 553 (Iowa 2017) (discussed limited aided-by-agency principles in hostile-work-environment context)
Zsigo v. Hurley Med. Ctr., 716 N.W.2d 220 (Mich. 2006) (rejected broad aided-by-agency theory as too expansive)