Unit 5b: Vicarious Liability

Question 1

Essential elements of vicarious liability

Answer 1

• The worker must be an employee (not an independent contractor)
• The employee must have committed a tort
• The employee’s tort must have been committed in the course of their employment.

Question 2

Who is an employee?

Answer 2

Employed under a contract of service. Defined in Barclays Bank plc v Various Claimants. An independent contractor would be employed under a contract for services.

Question 3

Acting in the course of employment

Answer 3

An employer will be vicariously liable for:
- wrongful acts which it has authorised
- wrongful and unauthorised modes of carrying out an authorised act.
From Lister v Hesley Hall Ltd.

Question 4

Acts prohibited by employer

Answer 4

From Denning’s judgement in Rose v Plenty. Must consider whether a prohibited acct is within the course of employment, depends on the purpose for which it is done, if done for the employer’s business then it is done in the course of employment.

Question 5

Employees’ intentional torts

Answer 5

An employer can be vicariously liable for an intentional wrongful act committed purely for an employee’s benefit where there is a close connection between the work they had been employed to do and the acts in question.

Question 6

‘Frolic’ cases

Answer 6

Phrase coined by Parke B, ‘on a frolic of their own’. Question of degree in each case whether an employee’s departure from their authorised route is a ‘frolic’.