vicarious liability

The main example is an employer's (master's) liability for torts committed by an employee (servant) in the course of employment, under the maxims respondeat superior and qui facit per alium facit per se. Other relationships include principal and agent, and partners. The employer is liable even for a wrongful mode of doing an authorised act, and even for fraud committed by the employee in the course of employment (Lloyd v. Grace, Smith & Co., House of Lords, 1912).

The employer is generally not liable for an independent contractor's torts. The State is vicariously liable for its servants' torts in non-sovereign functions, as held in Vidhyawati, where a government jeep driver's rash driving killed a pedestrian.

Example

The State was held vicariously liable for the death caused by the rash driving of the Collector's jeep driver.

In Indian law

• State of Rajasthan v. Vidhyawati, 1962 INSC 38: State vicariously liable for its driver's negligence in a non-sovereign function
• Lloyd v. Grace, Smith & Co. (House of Lords, 1912)

See also

respondeat superior · qui facit per alium facit per se · sovereign immunity

Read more in the study notes

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• Legal words and their usage: Kidnap to Witness (English)
• Liability: theory, conditions, the wrongful act, damnum sine injuria and causation (Jurisprudence)