Negligence vicarious liability

In addition an employer has an obligation to use care in the selection of fellow employees although this duty is less often encountered as a result of the development of the doctrine of vicarious liability whereby the employer will be liable for the negligent acts of his employees whilst acting in the course of their employment. 

The employer can be held liable either directly for breach of his own duties or vicariously. Vicarious liability arises where an employee or an agent of the employer has acted negligently and caused injury to another employee. The employer is legally liable for the wrongful act or omission where it has been performed in his interests. However, he is not liable if the employee acts negligently on a frolic of his own independently of his employment. Smith v. Crossley Bros. Ltd illustrates this, where, as a joke, two apprentices injected compressed air into the body of a third and the employers were held not liable. 

An important principle in negligence cases is that of vicarious liability. In essence this renders the employer directly liable for the actions of his employees. 

Medical malpractice liability exists for treatment with CAM, particularly if clinicians recommend that patients take a supplement that is inferior in quality and, as a consequence, harmful. The same holds true if physicians direct patients to a negligent CAM practitioner. The referring clinician may be vicariously liable. The risk of negligence is especially keen if clinicians refer patients for a particular type of alternative therapy that... 

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