Vicarious liability is when a person or company can be held responsible for the wrongful actions of someone else, such as an employee. This type of liability is governed by agency law and exists under the doctrine of respondeat superior. Employers can protect themselves by imposing strict guidelines and limiting the scope of employment. Secondary liability encourages monitoring of those who represent a company. It can also exist in other agency contexts, such as lending a car to someone.
Vicarious liability refers to legal liability for wrongful actions committed by someone else. In other words, according to this doctrine, a natural or legal person can be held responsible for someone else’s actions. This type of liability, also referred to as secondary liability, is governed by agency law.
Vicarious responsibility exists under the doctrine of respondeat superior. This doctrine dictates that the master is responsible for the actions of his agent. The agent can also be held legally liable, so both parties can be sued and held jointly and severally liable for damages.
Vicarious liability is commonly found in an employment law situation. If an employee commits a wrongdoing that is within the scope of their employment, the employer can be held liable. In other words, if an employee injures someone or commits a tort while doing their job, the injured victim can sue the employer.
Vicarious liability is a form of strict liability. This means that the “owner” or employer must not have had the intention of committing the offence. Even if the employer intended the employee to behave responsibly and not commit wrongdoing, the employer may still be legally liable.
An employer can protect itself from vicarious liability by imposing strict guidelines regarding acceptable behavior. An “agent” or employee is said to be outside the scope of their employment if they are acting outside their job duties. If a company clarifies what the job duties are and limits the scope of employment, this can provide some measure of protection against the imposition of this type of secondary liability.
Certain other limits also apply to the secondary liability imposed on employers. For example, if an employee intentionally commits assault or battery, the employer is usually not held legally responsible for this action. There are however exceptions to this if the use of force was directed by the employer or was part of the employee’s job.
Secondary accountability is intended to encourage a “master” to monitor the actions of those who represent him. Also, since companies are not people themselves, their only persona may be through their employees. It therefore makes sense that a company that has employees who periodically engage in illegal or irresponsible actions should be held legally responsible for encouraging such inappropriate actions.
Secondary liability may also exist in other agency contexts outside the employment relationship. For example, if a person lends another his car to run an errand for him, the person whose car is can be held liable for the actions of the person who borrowed the car. The person who borrowed the car is essentially acting as an agent, so vicarious liability is appropriate in this context.
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