Vicarious Liability Flashcards
What is vicarious liability?
Where an employer is liable for an employees negligence
What must be satisfied in order to be liable for vicarious liability?
2 conditions must be met:
-Tort must be committed by an employee
-Acts are “in the course of the employees employment”, not a frolic of their own
What is stage one of vicarious liability?
Worker must be an employee not an independent contractor - two tests to prove
What are the two tests of vicarious liability?
-Multiple test, where it is more obvious that the D is an employee
-‘akin to employment’ test, 5 factors from Christian Brother case, for non-traditional employment relationships
What is included in the multiple test for vicarious liability? name the key case
6 Factors from Ready Mix Concrete v Minister of Pensions (not all applied):
1. Paid wage, tax, national insurance
2. Tools/equipment provided
3. Must obey orders
4. Has control over how work is done
5. Accepted business risk
6, Ability to hire/fire assistants
What is included in the ‘akin to employment’ test for vicarious liability? name the key case
5 factors from Christian Brothers (not all applied):
1. employer likely to have insurance/can compensate victim
2. act is committed on behalf of employer
3. activity likely to be apart of business
4. employer created risk by hiring
5.employee under control of employer
-It must be fair, just and reasonable to find them akin
What is held for independent contractors under vicarious liability?
Defendent is not vicariously liable (Barclays Bank v Various Claimants)
What is stage two of vicarious liability? name the key case
Are acts closely connected to what they are supposed to do, it is in the ‘course of employment’ (Morrisons v Various Claimants)
How can an employer still be liable under vicarious liability? name the key case for each (5)
-Acting excessively (Vasey)
-Acting negligently (Centuries Insurance)
-In an unauthorised way (Rose v Plenty)
-Committing a criminal act (Morrisons v Mohamud)
-Abusing children/students (Lister v Hesley Hall)
How can an employer NOT be liable under vicarious liability? name the key case for each (3)
Link to a close connection and course of employment when applying:
-Doing something completely unrelated to their job (Heasemans v Clarity Cleaning)
-Committing a frolic of their own (Storey v Ashton)
-Personal vendetta (Morrisons v Various Claimants)
What is the side rule for stage two of vicarious liability?
Travelling to and from work - usually not liable unless the employee is being paid to travel or given travel expenses (Smith v Stages)
