WHO PAYS FOR THE SUB-CONTRACTOR'S NEGLIGENCE? VICARIOUS LIABILITY AND LIABILITY FOR “EXTRA-HAZARDOUS ACTIVITIES” RE-EXAMINED

"TORT is what is in the tort books, and the only thing holding it together is their binding... Naturally there are horses for courses, and the tort course sports quite a lot of horses, of very different breeds and speeds" (Weir, 'An Introduction to Tort Law' (2006), p. ix). Despi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cambridge law journal 2010-03, Vol.69 (1), p.13-16
Main Author: Tofaris, Stelios
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Appellate courts
CASE AND COMMENT
Court decisions
Horses
Independent contractors
Labor law
Law and legislation
Legal liability
Liability
Negligence
Tort law
Torts
Trials
Vicarious liability
Welders
Welding
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:"TORT is what is in the tort books, and the only thing holding it together is their binding... Naturally there are horses for courses, and the tort course sports quite a lot of horses, of very different breeds and speeds" (Weir, 'An Introduction to Tort Law' (2006), p. ix). Despite several academic efforts to explain when non-delegable duties arise and their theoretical relationship with vicarious liability, the conceptual underpinnings of this area of tort law remain contentious: the horses of vicarious liability and non-delegable duties continue to run uneasily alongside each other. Nonetheless, some doctrinal boundaries are not difficult to draw in a crude form, especially as regards negligence. Under vicarious liability, an employer is liable to a third party if the tort is committed by his employee in the course of his employment. If the tortfeasor is not his employee but an independent contractor, the employer is not liable for the latter's negligence unless he owes the third party a non-delegable duty.
ISSN:0008-1973
1469-2139
DOI:10.1017/S0008197310000061