MGMT1601 Business Law- Tardif v Wiebe Case

Answer

Tardif v Wiebe case portrays the deliberate tort like battery and assault. In this case, Wiebe an inexperienced bouncer of Byng Hotel applies the irrational force against the Tardif. The appellant suffered a head injury on the walkway adjacent to the hotel entryway. The plaintiff claims for the individual injury he got at the Byng Hotel in Cranbrook. Therefore, this paper intends to examine whether vicarious liability is unfair for businesses, employers should always be liable to vicarious liability, and bouncers should be liable if they are doing their personal jobs.

Whether Vicarious Liability is Unfair for Businesses

Vicarious Liability does not open organizations to a lot of risks. Vicarious liability holds business owners responsible for an intentional tort or unjust negligence acts of their employees when they are in the course of performing their employment duties (Bowal & Bontorin, 2014). Additionally, the injured party may decide to sue both the employer and the employee responsible under the law. However, because the employer knows so well that they will be held responsible for any unlawful action from their employees; they are in a better position to tame their employee's tortious behavior. Otherwise, if the employer will not control her employee’s negligence behavior, they must be ready to share the bad and good results of such behavior. Just like the way the employers are legally entitled to the profits made by the employees; they are also legally liable for the harm caused by the same employees. Besides, if a person is negligently injured by an employee and needs to get compensated, the most likely party to pay for the injuries is the employer. Bad or good, the legal system intention is to make the victim whole, and that can only happen by making the employer liable, which increases the chances of accomplishing the goal. The employers need to instruct their employees on how to tackles issues related to the workplace.

Whether Employers Should Always be Liable to Vicarious Liability

Employers should not always be liable for their employees' wrongdoing under certain circumstances. In most cases, the court will repeat that, in order to determine a finding of vicarious liability, there must be a close relationship, between the defendants, the assault, and the nature of the employee’s employment for it to be fair and just to hold the employer vicariously accountable. The fact that the employment provides the opportunity, time, setting and place for tortuous actions to happen, is not necessarily adequate for holding the employer liable (Loxton, 2014). Employee's tort conducts such assault is common particularly in situations where employees are given the authority to control the general public.  

Whether Bouncers Should be Liable if they are doing their Personal Jobs

If the bouncers are doing their personal jobs instead of performing the job given to them by the hotel, they must be personally responsible. The law considers whether the defendant is acting within the scope of his employment or in his personal capacity (Barrett, 2006). In the case between Tardif and Wiebe, Poburn was employed bouncer but he recruited Webe. Although Wiebe was not instructed to perform the duties of a bouncer, he acted as a doorman of the hotel instead of doing the responsibility that he was given by the hotel.

To conclude with, the employers should know that if they cannot provide proper training to improve the employee’s capability of dealing with customer’s issues, they will be vicariously liable for their actions. 

References

Barrett, B. (2006). Vicarious Liability for Harassment by an Employee. Industrial Law Journal, 35(4), 431-438.

Bowal, P., & Bontorin, L. (2014). Vicarious Liability: The Legal Responsibility of Employers - LawNow Magazine. LawNow Magazine. Retrieved 24 May 2017, from

Loxton, B. (2014). How far can employers be blamed for their employee’s actions? - Foot Anstey. Footanstey.com. Retrieved 24 May 2017, from https://www.footanstey.com/bulletins/2131-how-far-can-employers-be-blamed-for-their-employees-actions

Tutin, M. (2016). Vicarious Liability: An Ever Expanding Concept?. Industrial Law Journal, 45(4), 556-564.