My client is the Manager of a computer maintenance company. One of his junior employees did not follow a maintenance instruction manual given, due to which the customer’s data got completely wiped out and he suffered huge losses. The customer wants to sue my client for breach of contract due to negligence of the employee, committed in the course of employment. Can my client argue that it is only the junior employee who is liable and not the employer himself? Support with recent UK case law if there is no Indian case law on the matter.
What is the crux of the matter?
Legal Issue
In your own words identify the core legal problem in the question. Limit to 10 words. Do not copy-paste from the question. Ignore non-relevant facts in the question.
Is employer not responsible for the harm caused by employee?
Area of Law
Tort law
Country
What country has jurisdiction over this matter? If multiple juristictions apply, enter the most likely one.
United Kingdom
Find a webpage that discusses the matter.
Search Terms
Use Google to find relevant webpages, blog posts, forum comments etc. You can start your search by entering the original question or the crux of the matter. Use additional keywords to restrict results to your jurisdiction of interest. If you don't find too many relevant pages in the top ten results, try refining your search by searching for exact phrases by adding quotation marks around groups of words, or by excluding irrelevant results by adding a minus sign in front of a keyword.
Vicarious liability of the employer
URL
URL of webpage discussing this issue. When looking through search results, prefer webpages from reputed law firms, popular law blogs and legal forums, over other webpages.
http://findlaw.co.uk/law/accidents_and_injuries/accident_claims/vicarious-liability.html
Relevant Excerpt
Excerpt from the webpage most relevant to the matter. Use Ctrl-F in the browser to search within the webpage. Find a sentence or two that discusses the matter at hand. Look for references to specific articles or paragraphs in an act/statute that you can use below.
«If an employee injures someone in the course of their employment, the employer may be subject to vicarious liability. »
What Act or Statute addresses this matter?
Search Terms
Use Google or a law related search engine to find relevant acts/statutes. Use keywords from before, keywords from the pages you found, in addition to keywords like “act” or “law”. You may also restrict your Google search results to specific websites using “site:” in your search terms.
vicarious liability site:legislation.gov.uk
URL
URL of webpage containing relevant portion of the act or statute. When looking through search results, find reputed websites that contain the text of the act/statute. Government sites, websites of reputed law firms, are good candidates. Blog sites are less reliable, but still sometimes useful.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/109
Equality Act
2010
Relevant Section
Relevant section or paragraph number.
Part 8, Section 109
Relevant Excerpt
Excerpt of article or paragraph most relevant to the matter. Use Ctrl-F in the browser to search within the text of the act. Find the paragraph that is most relevant to the matter above. You must be able to rely on the excerpt for your final opinion below.
«(1)Anything done by a person (A) in the course of A's employment must be treated as also done by the employer.»
Most recent case-law addressing this matter.
Search Terms
Use Google or a law related search engine to find the most recent case-law relevant to this matter. Make sure the ruling has not since been overruled. If no case-laws apply, leave empty. Additional keywords like "case", "judgement" may be useful. Ignore cases that simply casually mention the issue, and instead look for cases that have decided on the crux of the matter.
Vicarious liability case precedent
URL
URL of webpage containing relevant portion of the judgement. Government websites and websites of reputed law firms are more reliable. If a blog site mentions a specific case, you can use that to refine your search to find the official judgement.
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2005/1151.html
Viasystems (Tyneside) Ltd v Thermal Transfer (Northern) Ltd
2005
Court and Bench
Court passing judgement and number of judges on the bench.
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION), 2 judges
Briefly summarize the facts of the case. Focus only on facts similar to the question. If too dissimilar, it is likely your case is not relevant.
The worker accidentally flooded the factory, and his employers were found liable
Relevant Excerpt
Excerpt of article or section most relevant to the matter. Use Ctrl-F in the browser to search within the text of the judgement. Find the paragraph that is most relevant to the matter above. Your excerpt must directly support your opinion below.
« The concept of vicarious liability does not depend on the employer's fault but on his role. Liability is imposed by a policy of the law upon an employer, even though he is not personally at fault, on the basis, generally speaking, that those who set in motion and profit from the activities of their employees should compensate those who are injured by such activities even when performed negligently. »
Citation
Check the judgement text for its citation, or search for other cases that have cited this case using a print-journal citation. Do not enter online citations here. Leave blank if you cannot easily find a citation from journals like AIR, SCC, ILJ etc.
Status
Does the judgement still hold? Ensure other cases that cite this judgement have not overruled this judgement. Use the print-journal citation above to find other judgements referring to this judgement.
The judgement still hold.
Summarize your findings.
Based on your research above, answer the question posed to you at the top. In some cases you answer may be a simple "Yes, as long as " or "No, because ". In other cases it may be less certain "Quite possiby, if " or "Unlikely, unless ". Try to be concise and to-the-point. Do not repeat the question, or copy-paste from the act or judgement. Limit your answer to 140 characters (around 30 words; 3 sentences).
No, the employer is responsible for employee’s actions in this case, because negligence of the employee directly concerned his responsibilities as an employee.
Next steps for your client
Suggest one or two concrete steps the person can take next. Try to start each sentence with a verb (e.g., "Find documents that ", "Meet with ", etc.). Limit 140 characters.
Meet with the customer’s representatives to reach an amicable settlement of the issue. Fine the employee to cover some of the settlement costs.
Clarification question
If you think your client could provide one new piece of information that would change your opinion above or the suggested next steps, pose that as a question for your client to answer. Limit 140 characters.
