Phillips hires addis, who had sixteen prior convictions for the use of hallucinogenic drugs, as an air traffic controller for his private airport. phillips could easily have discovered the convictions had he bothered to make a routine criminal record check, but this was just too much trouble. phillips knew nothing whatsoever about the job of an air traffic controller, and, when he hired addis, merely told him to "get the planes in safely the best way you know how; the details are up to you." one day, phillips held a private birthday party for a celebrity and invited 20 of his rich and famous friends, all of whom were to arrive by a private jet. as it turned out, addis was under the influence of drugs on this day and, as a result, all 20 of phillips's friends were killed. after this national tragedy, phillips and addis were sued for negligence by the estates of these people. in this case: