Cite as: 527 U. S. 526 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Advisory Council as Amicus Curiae 12 ("[I]f an employer has made efforts to familiarize itself with Title VII's requirements, then any violation of those requirements by the employer can be inferred to have been committed 'with malice or with reckless indifference' "). Dissuading employers from implementing programs or policies to prevent discrimination in the workplace is directly contrary to the purposes underlying Title VII. The statute's "primary objective" is "a prophylactic one," Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 417 (1975); it aims, chiefly, "not to provide redress but to avoid harm," Faragher, 524 U. S., at 806. With regard to sexual harassment, "[f]or example, Title VII is designed to encourage the creation of antiharassment policies and effective grievance mechanisms." Burlington Industries, Inc., 524 U. S., at 764. The purposes underlying Title VII are similarly advanced where employers are encouraged to adopt antidiscrimination policies and to educate their personnel on Title VII's prohibitions.
In light of the perverse incentives that the Restatement's "scope of employment" rules create, we are compelled to modify these principles to avoid undermining the objectives underlying Title VII. See generally ibid. See also Faragher, supra, at 802, n. 3 (noting that Court must "adapt agency concepts to the practical objectives of Title VII"); Meritor Savings Bank, FSB, 477 U. S., at 72 ("[C]ommonlaw principles may not be transferable in all their particulars to Title VII"). Recognizing Title VII as an effort to promote prevention as well as remediation, and observing the very principles underlying the Restatements' strict limits on vicarious liability for punitive damages, we agree that, in the punitive damages context, an employer may not be vicariously liable for the discriminatory employment decisions of managerial agents where these decisions are contrary to the employer's "good-faith efforts to comply with Title VII." 139 F. 3d, at 974 (Tatel, J., dissenting). As the dissent recognized, "[g]iving punitive damages protection to employers
545
Page: Index Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007