Course: Legal Aspect of Contract SCENARIO 3 Home Builders Ltd supplies and fits
ID: 428231 • Letter: C
Question
Course: Legal Aspect of Contract
SCENARIO 3
Home Builders Ltd supplies and fits kitchens and bathrooms. Part of the business involves manufacturing its own tiles and furniture. Jon is employed by Home Builders Ltd as a wood machinist operating a bench mounted circular saw. Today, while operating the circular saw, Jon caught his hand in the saw and severed 4 fingers. At the time this occurred, he had worked a 12 hour shift and for the last 6 hours of his shift, his supervisor, Murad, asked him to lend his push stick (which he had been instructed to use for feeding small pieces of wood into the machine) to a colleague. He was working to complete an urgent job. Joe admitted that he had been distracted and chatting to a colleague when the accident occurred.
Advise Home Builders Ltd as to its liability in negligence, including vicarious liability and whether any defences are available to the company.
1. What is vicarious liability? explain clearly?
2. When is an employer vicariously liable for the actions of its employees? explain clearly?
Explanation / Answer
The incident has taken place in the workplace and during the employment period of Jon, but Jon has not followed the instruction properly while operating the saw. It was instructed to use push stick for feeding small pieces of wood into the machine. Since, it is a clear-cut negligence from Jon’s end therefore, Home Builders Ltd should not be held responsible for this act of negligence by its employee and hence, it is not the case of vicarious liability.
1. Vicarious Liability: In vicarious liability, a party is held responsible for the actions or omissions not of its own but for the negligence of another. For example: if we take a hospital where several people are employed and if there are some medical malpractice actions then the hospital is liable in this case for the negligence of its employee. Similarly, in other workplaces, the employers can be held liable for the negligence done by the employee provided that the act took place during the employment.
2. An employer is vicariously liable for its employee action only during the tenure of the employment and if the employee has worked under the designated authority and workplace protocol while engaging in the specific task. For example: let us say that a bus driver is driving a bus and have broken signal, exceeded the speed limit and is drunk. The bus met with an accident, then in this case the employer to the bus driver is not vicariously responsible as the protocol have been broken bus driver.