Employer Liability For The Acts of Employees

Under Georgia law, employers are vicariously liable for the acts of the employees provided such acts are performed within the scope of their employment. If an employee is working on behalf of an employer and is acting within the scope of his or her duties, an employer will be liable if the employee negligently injuries a third party. The reasons for such liability are due to the fact that the injury arose out of and was caused by the performance of duties being performed on behalf of the employer. Under such circumstances, both the employer and employee are legally liable to the injured third party.
Disputes often arise in cases where there is some question whether the employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment. Such questions may arise in the context of an employee traveling to and from work where they may be performing an errand for their employer, attending a special meeting or otherwise performing some function on behalf of their employer even though technically not “on the job.” Such cases are always factually unique and each case must be decided based on an analysis of the facts as it pertains to the seminal legal question, that being whether the employee was acting within the scope of his or her employment at the time of the complained of injury.
For any person injured in an accident or as a result of any misconduct or negligence of a third party, one must always analyze whether there is the possibility of a claim against the person’s employer. We have handled many cases in the past where initially it appeared that the claim could only be brought against the individual tortfeasor only to discover through investigations that the person who negligently caused the injury was, in fact, working on behalf of a third party at the time of the incident. As in any important legal case, investigation of the facts as close to the time of the injury is imperative if the rights of the victim are to be protected.