Can an employer be held liable for failing to warn that an employee was carrying out an unannounced inspection?

liability in such a situation must be predicated on one of three grounds: the conduct of the employee actually increased the risk of harm to the damaged firm; the harm to the damaged firm resulted from its reliance on the employee carrying out the inspection as ordered; or there existed a prior duty to inspect owed by the employer to the damaged firm. See generally Davis v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 525 F.2d 1204 (5th Cir. 1976).

Id. at 1145. Finding that the failure to warn had not increased the risk, and that there was no evidence of public reliance on the order of the regional director, the court found that there was no basis for liability. Id.

Similarly, in Thompson v. United States, supra, 592 F.2d 1104, we emphasized that

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