preview

Caparo Industries Vs Dickman Essay

Better Essays

Although the Health and Safety at work etc. Act 1974 provides criminal legislation for employers, there are various key health and safety requirements that identify a duty of care owed to an employee by an employer, that have been set via precedents. This essay aims to identify the key health and safety requirements owed by an employer to an employee, deriving from common law, including the principle of vicarious liability

Common Law

The case Caparo Industries v Dickman is a leading case that identifies a test to determine whether or not an employer owes a duty of care within a negligence case. In this case Caparo Industries had taken over a company called Fidelity and they seud Dickman for negligence in the preparation of accounts. Sir Neil …show more content…

In this case a warden in charge of maintain discipline in a boarding house, sexually abused boys aged between 12 and 15. His duties where to ensure order, make sure children went to bed, school and took part in organised activities. Lord Steyn was satisfied that the employers entrusted the warden with caring for the children at the boarding home. He stated that “the wardens acts were so closely connected with his employment that it would be fair and just to hold the employers vicariously liable”. This went against the Salmond test, which Lord Steyn deemed inadequate, providing an example of how the current test could deem a bank not liable for a employee defrauding a customer and pocketing money unless the bank was set up to defraud customers. In this case the Salmond test would find the employer not liable, as it was not his job role to sexually abuse the children. Steyn’s new close connection test focused on three main principles; a broad approach should be adopted when considering the scope of employment, the time and place of the act should not be conclusive in reaching a decision, and there must be a connection between the employees duties and the acts committed. This test is fairer in identifying whether an employer should be held vicariously liable. The expansion of this scope of employment is further visited in the case Dubai Aluminium Co Ltd v Salaam and Others where a dishonest fraud act by an employee was also deemed as being closely connected with the scope of employment, so therefore the employer could be held liable for an employees dishonest actions during the ordinary course of business, so they were deemed joint liable with the

Get Access