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Gopal Krishna Behera (Advocate Orissa High Court Cuttack.)     10 June 2009

Vicarious Liability

"A person is ordinarily responsible for his own acts but there may be cases when he is held for the acts of others".

Invite for explanation.



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 2 Replies

Gopal Krishna Behera (Advocate Orissa High Court Cuttack.)     10 June 2009

The general rule is that liability lies only on the person who does the act, but to this rule there are the following important exceptions, where the doctrine of vicarious liability, i.e., where one person is made liable for the wrongful act of another applies. It is only in civil law that vicarious liability is recognised in two cases-

(i) Master and Servant

(ii)Representatives of a dead man.

Nirali Nayak   26 June 2021

Hello sir, greetings of the day.
As per your query, when a person is ordinarily responsible for his own acts but there may be cases when he is held for the acts of others, it is called vicarious liability. Vicarious liability is used to explain the legal responsibility that one party hold for the actions of somebody else. It is also called as imputed liability. Vicarious liability is also referred to as strict, or no-fault liability because in this the employer itself is not actually or personally at fault.  Indeed, vicarious liability does not only apply to employers and employees.  The law of Vicarious liability holds that “one person responsible for the misconduct of another because of the relationship between them.” 
So, this type of liability is only applicable when one party is socially superior to another party and superior party shall be considered liable. Some relationships that fall under this category are: 
Master and Servant
Owner and Independent Contractor
Partners in Partnership Firm
Principal and Agent
Company and its Directors
There are some essentials for a case to fall under vicarious liability. They are:
There must be a certain type of relation between the parties. 
The wrongful act must be committed by another person. 
The wrongful act must happen during the course of employment. 


Hope this answers your question.
Regards
Nirali Nayak
Law Student


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