Liability vicarious

Covers the employer s vicarious liability for actions of his employees. 

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. 

The requirement to provide competent fellow employees includes the provision of adequate supervision, instruction and training. As mentioned earlier, employers are responsible for the actions of their employees (vicarious liability) provided that the action in question took place during the normal course of their employment. 

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. 

The employer can also be held liable for the actions of his/ her employees causing injury, death or damage to others, providing the actions were committed in the course of employment. This form of liability of the employer is known as vicarious liability. 

Employees have a general duty of care in common law towards themselves and to other people - so they can also be sued by anyone injured as a result of lack of reasonable care on their part. In practice this happens rarely, and the liability is assumed by the employer under the principle of vicarious liability. 

Vicarious liability an employment relationship has to be established where an employer is vicariously liable for the breaches of contract of employees and torts ... 

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