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Respondeat superior is a legal notion that holds an owner accountable for the workers’ behavior while they are on the job(Van Loo, 2020). Organizations face significant civil and criminal penalties under modern laws based on respondeat superior(Ehrenzweig, 2021). Such laws are intended to compel companies to be watchful about the behavior of their employees. Respondeat superior demands that the company’s agent conducts the offense while operating within the agent’s power and influence the organization.
This article discusses the doctrine of Respondent Superior. Under this concept, an institution’s owner may be held accountable for the actions of institution workers or agents. As per the circumstances of Buy-Mart, the company might be held accountable for Watts’ actions. Under the notion of Respondeat Superior, the owners are in the perfect situation in evaluating workers since they incur the expenses that emerge as a consequence of damages incurred by workers or agency.
The scope of the employee’s employment has been a critical aspect in determining whether Buy-Mart is responsible under the doctrines Respondeat Superior. It examines whether or whether an individual employee’s behavior was within the scope of his employment, as well as the employer’s culpability for employee conduct in a tortious circumstance.
Watts’s actions constituted an indictable offense or a breach of carelessness, and as a result, Buy- Mart’s responsibility will be influenced since Watts perpetrated the tort while working for Buy-Mart (as a cashier), and the concept of respondeat superior does not distinguish between the two.
Buy Mart will suffer as a result of this circumstance. An owner who is aware that a worker has a proclivity to do tortious conduct is liable for the worker’s actions, even though the conduct is not within the scope of employment. As a result, even though Watt’s actions were beyond the scope of his work, Buy Mart would still be responsible for them.
Debate:
There are just a few instances in which the owner can be held accountable for a tortious act committed by an agent. These situations imply irresponsibility or a lack of real purpose on the part of the owner. As a result, there is no need to change the respondeat superior theory to hold agents solely accountable for their tortious activities. However, some may argue that as both employee and employer gain from each other, every individual, whether an agent or not, is accountable for their tortious activities, necessitating changes to the respondeat superior theory.
Work Cited
Ehrenzweig, A. A. (2021). 4. Respondeat superior and res ipsa loquitur. The Rule is conquered. In Negligence Without Fault (pp. 1821). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520350151-004
Van Loo, R. (2020). The Revival of Respondeat Superior and Evolution of Gatekeeper Liability. Georgetown Law Journal, 109. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/glj109&id=145&div=&collection=
