Strict and Vicarious Liability — KSLU Jurisprudence Notes

Strict and Vicarious Liability

1. Strict liability — liability without fault: Rylands v. Fletcher (1868) — one who brings a dangerous thing onto his land keeps it at his peril; exceptions (act of God, plaintiff’s default, consent, stranger’s act, statutory authority). India went further: absolute liability (M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, 1987) — a hazardous enterprise pays without exceptions, the Rylands defences deleted.
2. Vicarious liability — one person answers for another’s wrong: master for servant’s torts committed in the course of employment (respondeat superior — let the master answer; qui facit per alium facit per se — he who acts through another acts himself). Rationale: the master chooses, controls, profits by and can insure against the servant’s activity. The boundary the problems test: a detour within employment keeps the master liable; a frolic of his own — an independent journey for the servant’s purposes — does not.