An employee accepted a job with Hilton Hotels. On his employment application, he truthfully replied no to a question asking whether he had ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. A paragraph at the bottom of the application stated that "I authorize Hilton to investigate my background. . . ." However, the employee did not initial this paragraph. A background checking company (IMI) was asked to check the employ- ee's background. IMI erroneously reported that the employee had been convicted of a misde- meanor and had served six months in jail. The employee was not informed of the background check. When he was confronted by a supervisor who asked him whether he had ever been in prison, the employee again said that he had not.
Hilton did not look into the matter any further. Instead, the employee was terminated for falsifying his application. He sued both Hilton and IMI. What should the court decide? Why? (Socorro v. IMI Data Search and Hilton Hotels, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7400 (N.D.Ill.))