SCENARIO 3 Home Builders Ltd supplies and fits kitchens and bathrooms. Part of t
ID: 349552 • Letter: S
Question
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?
2. When is an employer vicariously liable for the actions of its employees?
3. Would Jon be successful in a claim against his employer, Home Builders Ltd, and why?
4. What is ‘contributory negligence?
5. Would Home Builders Ltd be able to use the defence of ‘contributory negligence’ in any claim by Jon?
Explanation / Answer
1) Vicarious liability is a situation where one person is held responsible for the unlawful or reckless actions of an other person. Like for example, an employee does an unlawful blunder and his employer is held responsible for the employee's mistake.
In this scenario, Jon has been distracted at work by chatting with a colleague, which was not a right thing to do while working on an urgent job. So, it was a case of vicarious liability where supervisor or the employer could be held for Jon's mistake.
2) When employees would be negligent with their duties due to which there would be liability or the penalty on the employer then, employer is liable for the actions of the employee.
Vicarious liability can be defined as a concept that can be used to impose strict liability on a person who does not have primary liability, that is, the person is not at fault. Vicarious liability is not a tort. It literally means that one person is liable for the torts of another. The employer is liable for the torts of his employee. This liability arises only when the employee is acting the course of his or her employment.
3) Jon was very irresponsible and reckless while he was working on the machine. He should work with an absolutely undistracted mind. But he was happily working by chatting with his fellow worker on an urgent job. Therefore, severed fingers is completely Jon's mistake and employer cannot be claimed for Jon's negligence.
4) Contributory negligence is a rule of law that says that a person who was partially at fault for the incident or the accident, due to his own negligence, could not recover any damages from the one who supposedly caused the incident.
Contributory negligence refers to some amount of negligence on the part of the plaintiff, without which the incident would not have occurred. Here, plaintiff is Jon and defendent is the supervisor (or employer). Jon was negligent while working, and it was his mistake in working negligently on an urgent job.
Since the supervisor has asked Jon to lend his stick to someone else, Jon should be more cautious. Yet, he was recklessly working on an urgent job by chatting along with his co-worker. Therefore, Jon cannot be successful in the claim against the employer.
5) Home Builders Ltd would defend the case by saying that Jon was not careful enough while working when he does not have the stick with him. Or if the work was that urgent, then he would have told the same to the supervisor. But instead, Jon passed on the stick to other worker and inspite of not having stick, he was very reckless and irresponsible towards the job. Or he could have even found an alternative to the same. Since Jon did not bother about his safety, he worked on the job without a stick and injured himself.
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