Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Vicarious liability - Coggle Diagram
Vicarious liability
-
Employee
- Employee is employed under a contract of service
- The employer will be liable for the torts of his/her employee rather than an independent contractor
Tests for employee status:
- There is many used because no single test can cover the full range of work situations.
- Instead courts look at the facts of the case, along with the level and control
1. Control test:
- To what extent does a person have autonomy in terms of how he does the job
- Can the employer tell the employee what to do? Is the employee under control of the employer
(Whether the master had the right to control what was done and the way in which it was done)
- Test is only useful in cases of borrowed owners
-
Hawley v Luminar Leisure plc (2005):
- Facts: The nightclub owner was held to be in control and therefore vicariously liable for bouncers actually employed by a security firm
- Why? The owner gave the men detailed instructions on how to do the job
2. Economic Integration Test:
- To what extent is the employee's work integrated into the business
- Contract OF service: Employee's work is done as an integral part of the business
- Contract FOR service: The work is not integrated into the business but merely an accessory to it
Determined in Stevenson, Jordan & Harrison v. MacDonald & Evans (1952)
3. Commercial Risk Test:
- Control of the employer
- Ownership of the tools
- There's a chance of profits
- There is a risk of loss
-
Mercy Docks and Harbour Board v Coggins (1947):
- To ask who is entitled to tell the employee the way he must do the work upon which he is ordered/engaged to do AND
- Who is entitled to give the orders as to how the works should be done
Independent contractor
One is not vicariously liable for torts of independent contractors, but there's very little exceptions (non-delegable duties):
- Dangerous activities
- Injuries at work
- Highway incidences
- Car owners
Dangerous activities:
- Acts commissioned by an employer that are so hazardous in their character that laws thought it proper to impose direct obligation on the employer to see that care is taken
Biffa Waste Services v Maschinenfabrik Ernst Hese Gmbh (2009):
- Facts: D contracted to build a plant for the claimant. Plant was damaged by a fire caused by the defendant's sub-contractor. Defendant appealed against finding that it was responsible for the sub-contractor's failure. The judge found that defendant had imposed sufficient control over the way the task had been handled to be considered responsible
- Held: Principle that made employer liable for the negligence of the sub-contractor engaged to carry out extra hazardous work was unsatisfactory and should be applied as narrowly as possible. (must only apply when the operations concerned would be hazardous whatever precautions were taken)
Lee Kee v Gui See & Anor (1972):
- Facts: Defendant were liable for negligence of their sub-contractor who set fire to some unwanted branches. The fires were left unattended so it spread and destroyed property of the Claimant.
- Held: If a man lights a fire, he must take reasonable precautions to prevent fire from spreading. This duty is absolute and non-delegable = irrelevant that performance of this duty was given to 3rd party whose negligence subsequently causes the damage.
Highway incidences:
- Concerns dangers created in a highway where employer commissions work to be done near a highway. If DOC is not taken, injury to passer-by may occur
Tarry v Ashton (1876):
- Facts: Claimant was injured when a suspended lamp fell on him. Defendant sought to excuse himself by saying that he employed a sub-contractor to put the lamp into good repair and that the sub-contractor should be liable instead
- Held: It is the case where the employer was under a positive and continuing duty to see that the lamp was kept in repair. The duty was placed on the employer before the sub-contractor had come and gone. Such a duty cannot be delegated = employer liable
Injuries at work:
- Some duties relating to health & safety of employees are personal to the employer and cannot be delegated
McDermid v. Nash Dredging ETC. Co. (1987):
- Facts: Claimant was employed by defendant where he was assigned to go work on another tug owned by a Dutch company under control of a Dutch Captain. As a result negligence of the tug master who was not an employee of defendant, claimant suffered injuries.
- Held: Defendant denied responsibility on the basis that they were no vicariously liable for the conduct of someone else's employee
Car owners:
- Car owners may be held vicariously liable for negligent damage caused by another driving his car if:
- The driver was the agent/servant of the owner or
- If it can be established that the vehicle was used for the owner's benefit
Morgan v Launchbury (1973):
- Held: HoL affirmed that if the vehicle is driven by the owner's agent and the user is driving as the owner's agent for the owner's purposes, the owner = liable
Contracts for Service:
- Employer-independent contractor
- Employer not liable for acts of ID
Lump sum methods of payment
The General Rule:
- A person who employs an independent contractor is not usually responsible for any tortious acts committed by the contractor
- BUT liability can be imposed on the person who employed the independent contractor
- If he breaches DOC owed to the claimant e.g. the person has not checked that the independent contractor is competent to undertake the work
- Breach of DOC can occur if duty cannot be assigned to another -- aka "non-delegable" (falls under the exception)
Basics
What is it
- An employer can be liable for acts or omissions of its employees, provided it can be shown that it took place in the course of their employment
- So employers are acted through their employees and can be deemed accountable for their actions, even though there is no personal fault on the employer
Why is vicarious liability imposed?
- Employers have "deeper pockets" than employees, where employees don't have enough resources to pay for the injury
- By hiring employees employers creates risks of harm to 3rd parties by hiring them. The employer should accept all risks that comes with hiring them
- Gives an incentive to employers to exercise care in selection of training + supervision of all employers, instills social responsibility
Criteria to succeed in a claim:
The claimant must prove that:
- The employee committed a tort
- The existence of an employer/employee relationship
The employee acted in the course of his employment when commiting the tort in question