Respondent Superior is a term that implies that an employer is usually accountable for the deeds of his employees and it arises if an employee causes damage to other people .However, for an employer to be legally responsible, the damage must arise via acts committed within the “scope” of employment (Cross, 2006).
The aspects to be considered in determining the accountability of an employer are; Presence of ``employee and employer” relationship- An employer can only be responsible for the acts committed by the employees that he controls (Miller, 2005). For instance, an employer cannot be responsible for actions of employees of an independent contractor.
Secondly the ``scope of employment” is very crucial in determining liability of employers .An employee should have been acting within the obligations conferred upon him by his employer at the time the damage occurs .Additionally, the employer should have been informed of the activity that the employee was engaging in before harm occurs. An employer cannot be liable if any harm occurs as a result of an employee acting outside his employment obligations (Miller, 2005). For example, a travel company cannot be held liable for an accident that an employee caused while driving one of their vehicles’ if the employee was using the vehicle to carry out personal chores.
In this scenario, Melnick will use the tort of ``negligence” to institute claims against the ``store owner’. Melnick will argue that Vinny, his employee was driving a truck that ran over his dog Susie thus Oscar should compensate him for the death of his dog Susie.
Melnick will argue that Vinny had an obligation to drive carefully to prevent causing harm .However, Vinny was reckless and did not keep a proper ``look out” while driving thus injuring and causing the death of Susie (Cross, 2005).
Oscar will argue that Vinny acted outside ``the scope of his duty” when the harm occurred thus he cannot be responsible. Oscar will argue he did not authorize Vinny to use the tract at the time the damage occurred and that that he was not informed that Vinny was taking a pregnant woman who had visited the store to hospital using the store’s truck.
References
Cross, F. and Miller, R. (2006).West's Legal Environment of Business. USA. Cengage
Learning publishers.
Miller, R. and Jentz, G. (2005).Fundamentals of business law. Mason, OH.
Thomson Publishers.
