swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Vicarious Liability - From: 1800 To: 1849
This page lists 7 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.
Laugher v Pointer (1826) 5 B & C 547; [1826] EngR 355; (1826) 5 B & C 547; (1826) 108 ER 204
1826
Abbott CJ, Littledale J, Bayley and Holroyd JJ (dissenting)
Vicarious Liability
The owner of a carriage hired a pair of horses for a day to draw the carriage. The owner of the horses also provided the driver, by whose negligence a horse belonging to a third party was injured. It appears that the majority of the court held that the owner of the carriage was not liable for the injury. Abbott CJ and Littledale J gave judgments with which an unrecorded majority of the court must have agreed. Littledale J said that the coachman or postillion cannot be the servant of both the owner of the horses and the traveller. "He is the servant of one or the other, but not the servant of one and the other; the law does not recognise a several liability in two principals who are unconnected."
Abbott CJ said: "I have the control and management of all that belongs to my land or my house; and it is my fault if I do not so exercise my authority as to prevent injury to another."
1 Citers
[ Commonlii ]
Joel v Morison (1834) 6 C & P 501; [1834] EWHC KB J39; (1834) 172 ER 1338
3 Jul 1834
CEC
Parke B
Vicarious Liability
Where a servant is undergoing a journey with a cart on behalf of his master, and makes a diversion for his own purposes, during which an injury is caused to a third party, the master is not liable, but if the servant remains on his master's business but causes injury because of the way he manages the cart, his master is liable.
[ Bailii ]
Brady v Giles (1835) 1 MOO & R 494
1835
Vicarious Liability
1 Citers
Priestley v Fowler [1837] EngR 202; (1837) 3 M & W 1; (1837) 150 ER 1030
1837
Personal Injury, Vicarious Liability
Priestley was a butcher's man who was injured when a van overloaded by fellow employees collapsed, injuring him. His lawsuit was founded on the principle of a master's vicarious liability for his servant's negligence.
1 Citers
[ Commonlii ]
Thomas Duncan, Treasurer To The Trustees Of The Perth And Dundee Turnpike Road v James Findlater [1839] EngR 1005; (1839) 6 Cl and Fin 894; (1839) 7 ER 934
23 Aug 1839
HL
Vicarious Liability
Trustees appointed under a Public Road Act are not responsible for an injury occasioned by the negligence of the men employed in making or repairing the road.
The funds raised by such Act cannot be charged with compensation for such an injury; the persons employed on the road not being in the situation of servants to the trustees.
[ Commonlii ]
Quarman v Burnett (1840) 6 M & W 499
1840
Vicarious Liability
1 Citers
Brydges v Branfill (1842) 12 Sim 369
1842
Sir Lancelot Shadwell VC
Equity, Vicarious Liability, Legal Professions
A tenant for life of settled land set out on an elaborate fraud aiming for the capital. It required first a private Act of Parliament to enable the estate to be sold under the direction of the court and the proceeds paid into court and invested in other land; a fictitious sale of the tenant for life's own lands to an associate of his; the application of the money in court in the purchase of the land from the associate at an excessive price; and the deliberate deception of the court to obtain an order under which part of the money in court was paid out to the tenant for life. He employed a firm of solicitors to act for him in obtaining the Act and the orders of the court and in every other proceeding under the Act. Brooks, the partner who acted in the transactions knew the circumstances of the transactions, but neither of his partners was aware that there was any fraud or irregularity in them. Held: Though the partners were blameless, they were jointly and severally liable with Brooks to make good the loss to the trust estate. The court allowed a claim in Chancery for the vicarious liability of partners for his equitable wrongdoing.
1 Citers
