The temp agency that placed Natavia Lowery as a personal assistant to celebrity real estate agent Linda Stein months before Lowery killed her can't be held liable for negligence, a Manhattan appeals court said Thursday.

The Appellate Division, First Department, dismissed a lawsuit by Stein's estate against temp agency Axion “since the evidence demonstrated that Axion had no notice of Lowery's violent propensities or knowledge of facts that might prompt a reasonably prudent person to conduct an investigation of the worker's background.”

The unsigned opinion by Justices Peter Tom, Karla Moskowitz, Paul Feinman, Judith Gische and Barbara Kapnick in Estate of Linda Stein v. Douglas Elliman, 115373/09, reversed a portion of a June 2016 decision by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Go To Lexis →

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Go To Bloomberg Law →

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

NOT FOR REPRINT