Taking the …… responsibility

There are many surprising things about law.

For example, it’s illegal to be drunk in a pub – which is as ridiculous as saying that I want to have my cake and eat it.  What’s the point of having cake if you can’t eat it.  What’s the point of being in a pub if you can’t get drunk!

It’s also illegal to sell alcohol to a drunk person – so get someone to buy it for you!

I’ve recently learned that it’s illegal to have a pigsty in front of your house.  Of course, anyone who has teenage sons will be disappointed that the law doesn’t extend to inside the house!

There are many laws that surprise my clients, starting with the fact that if they have employees who do something wrong during the course of undertaking their work, their employers may be held liable for damages.

Some of that can make perfect sense.  If you have an employee who has a company car, and the car isn’t insured, you’re responsible.  That seems obvious.  However, what happens if they’re drunk when they were driving the car.  You might say that you don’t know what your staff are doing every minute of the day, but you could still be liable if it’s found that you should have known.  For example, if you knew that they went to the pub every day for lunch, that might have put you on notice.

What may also surprise you is the extent to which external staff can be dragged in to disputes, or you can be responsible for the acts or omissions of those you’ve subcontracted work to.

For example, if you use an external HR company to conduct a disciplinary matter for you, and the employee ends up taking you to Tribunal, the external HR company could be held to be your agents and so could be liable for any action you take.

Or if you use an external security company such as a pub or club hiring external bouncers who hurt one of your customers, the customer could try to argue that you are liable for any alleged excessive force used.

Fortunately, whilst it is possible for you to be held liable in these circumstances, the evidence must be very strong.  If you’re responsible for the acts and omissions of others, it has to be shown that you had a genuine involvement.  If we take the situation of bouncers, if you simply subcontracted the work out to avoid any liability, a court is likely to find you liable.  However, if you sub the work out to a reliable and reputable company, with the genuine intention of wanting to have experts do the job rather than trying to source your own staff, a Court will only hold the security company liable, and not you.

As Wetherspoons recently found out in a case on this exact point – which very conveniently brings us back to the pub!

Kleyman & Co Solicitors.  The full-service law firm.  Often found to be responsible for the next round!