Vicarious Liability Flashcards
What is vicarious liability?
A tort which makes one person liable for the wrongful conduct committed by another
What is the most common relationship for imposing vicarious liability?
Employer-employee
Who is an employer not responsible for?
Independent contractors
From which case does the economic reality or multiple test originate, and what is it used to determine
Ready Mixed Concrete v MPNI, used to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.
What are the three things which must be considered in the multiple test?
Control, personal performance, mutuality of obligation
What does personal performance mean, and which case can be used to illustrate this?
Whether the worker has the ability to delegate the work, or must do it themselves. Echo & Express Publication v Tanton - a driver was not an employee as he could delegate
What does mutuality of obligation mean?
The employer is obligated to provide work and the worker is obligated to be available for it.
In which case did the tour guide’s ability to refuse work mean there was no mutuality of obligation?
Carmichael v National Power
Name two other factors which may be considered when assessing whether a worker is an employee.
Payment of wages, tax and NI, whether they have been provided tools/transport/uniform, self-description
In which case was self-description as an independent contractor irrelevant as the employer controlled so much of their work?
Ferguson v John Dawson Ltd.
What is the first test which may be applied where it is not obvious that the tortfeasor is an employee?
Whether there is a sufficiently close relationship to amount to a relationship akin to employment (JGE)
Cox v Ministry of Justice: ‘is the t_________ carrying on activities as an i_____ part of the business activities carried on by D and for its b_______’?
Tortfeasor, integral, business
An e_____ will only be liable for wrongful conduct committed ‘d______ the c____ of e__________’
Employer, during the course of employment
What is the first instance where an employer will be liable?
For a wrongful act authorised by the employer (very rare)
What is the second instance where an employer will be liable?
For an authorised act carried out in an unauthorised manner
What are the three meanings of ‘unauthorised manner’, and what is a case to support each?
Overzealously (Vasey v Surrey Free Inns)
Negligently (Century Insurance v NI Road Transport)
Contrary to express instruction (Limpus v London General Omnibus)
What is the third instance where an employer may be liable?
For an unauthorised act carried out in an unauthorised manner
The ‘close connection’ test comes from which case, and when is it used?
Lister v Hesley Hall - for unauthorised acts carried out in an unauthorised manner
What is the ‘close connection’ test?
Is there a sufficiently close connection between the employee’s wrongful conduct and his employment?
Why was a ‘close connection’ established in Lister v Hesley Hall?
Because the abuse happened during times where D should have been performing his duties of care and on the premises
What happens if the employer is found to be vicariously liable?
Both the employer and employee become joint tortfeasors, meaning the employer will be sued in addition to, not instead of, the employee
