Course of Employment

In one line

A master answers for what his servant does wrongly while doing the master's work, and not for what the servant does on his own account.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: an act is done in the course of employment where it is a wrongful act authorised by the master, or a wrongful and unauthorised mode of doing some act authorised by the master; the master is therefore liable for careless, mistaken, excessive or even forbidden ways of doing the job, and is not liable where the servant has stepped outside the employment altogether and is on a frolic of his own.

The formula, and where it comes from

Facts. Sitaram Motilal Kalal v. Santanuprasad Jaishankar Bhatt, AIR 1966 SC 1697, decided on 8 February 1966. The owner of a taxi entrusted it to a driver who collected the fares and accounted to him. The cleaner was trained to drive by that driver and, while taking a driving test with the driver absent from the vehicle, injured the respondent.

Held. The owner was not liable. The presumption that a vehicle is driven on the master's business by his authorised servant was rebutted: the owner had not employed or permitted the cleaner to drive, had not asked him to take a test, and had not authorised the driver to employ strangers, and the driver was not present to control the vehicle on the owner's behalf. For the master's liability to arise the act must be a wrongful act authorised by the master, or a wrongful and unauthorised mode of doing some act authorised by the master.

Why it matters here. It is the formula, stated by the Supreme Court, and every situation below is an application of it.

The situations, in the order examiners set them

1. A careless way of doing the job. A driver who drives too fast on his round is doing authorised work in an unauthorised way. The master is liable.

2. A mistaken way of doing the job. A servant who acts on an honest mistake while doing his work, for example a railway porter who pulls a passenger off a moving train believing him to be on the wrong one, is still doing the work. The master is liable.

3. An excessive way of doing the job. A servant who uses more force than the job requires, for example a bouncer who ejects a customer violently, is still doing the job. The master is liable.

4. A forbidden way of doing the job. A prohibition on the mode of doing the work does not take the act outside the employment; a prohibition on the sphere of the work does. A driver told not to race is still employed to drive; a driver told never to carry passengers who carries one may still be within the employment if the carriage was for the master's purposes.