Vicarious liability is the principle by which one person can be held liable for the torts of another. The person held vicariously liable need not necessarily be a tort-feasor himself -- he may in some circumstances be completely blameless -- but there must usually be some sense in which he has authorised the acts of the party who is at fault.
An employer is vicariously liable for negligent acts or omissions by his employee in the course of employment, whether or not such act or omission was specifically authorized by the employer. To avoid vicarious liability, an employer must demonstrate either that the employee was not negligent in that the employee was reasonably careful or that the employee was acting in his own right rather than on the employer's business.
