General Part, Illustrations. (4)
19th Century Sir Frederick Pollock EnglishA. directs his servant B. to put a heap of rubbish in his garden, near the boundary, but so as not to interfere with his neighbour C. B. executes A.’s order, and some of the rubbish falls over into C.’s garden. A. has wronged C..
A. sends out his servant B. with a carriage and horse. B. overtakes C.’s carriage and horse on the road, and strikes C.’s horse in order to make C.’s driver draw aside and let him pass. A. has wronged C.
A. sends out his servant B. with a carriage and horse. B. meets C.’s carriage and horse, and strikes C.’s horse in order to bring C.’s driver, with whom he has a private quarrel, into trouble. A. has not wronged C.
A. sends out his servant B. with a cart on business errands. In the course of doing A.’s business, B. takes a longer way for a purpose of his own, and by careless driving runs over C. After finishing his business, and as he is driving home, B. picks up a friend D.; D. persuades B. to drive him in another direction, and by careless driving B. runs over E. A. is liable to C., but he is not liable to E..
N., a passenger by the X. Company’s railway, books for Allahabad, and takes his seat in a train which is in fact going thither. A. is a servant of the company whose duty is (among other things) to see that passengers do not get into wrong trains or carriages. A., erroneously supposing N. to have got into a train which is not going to Allahabad, pulls him out of the carriage as the train is starting, whereby N. falls on the platform and is injured. The X. Company has wronged N., even if A.’s instructions were that he must not use force to remove passengers from a wrong carriage.
[6. B. is A.’s servant; part of his duty is to light the fire in a certain room in A.’s house. B. finds difficulty in lighting the fire from the chimney being foul, and makes a fire of straw under the chimney in order to clear it. The house takes fire, and damage is done thereby to the house and goods of a neighbour C. B. only, and not A., has wronged C., for it was not B.’s business as A.’s servant to cleanse the chimney].
C., a customer of A.’s bank, cashes a draft, and by mistake leaves some of his money on the counter. He returns and takes it up hurriedly; B., one of the bank clerks, thinks he has stolen some of the bank’s money, and pursues and arrests him. A. has not wronged C., inasmuch as it is no part of a bank clerk’s duty to pursue or arrest thieves, although he might be justified in so doing if theft had really been committed.
N. is a platelayer in the service of X. Railway Company. He makes a journey on the company’s service in a train on the company’s line. By the negligence of a pointsman employed by the company, the train goes off the line, and N. is injured. The X. company is liable to N..
[9. P. is an engine-driver in the service of the X. Railway Company. A train which he is driving in the course of his service goes off the line by the negligence of Q., a generally competent pointsman also in the company’s service, and P. is injured. The X. Company is liable to P.].
- A steamship of the A. Company, being navigated up the harbour of Bombay by a compulsory pilot, runs down B.’s bagalo. If the A. Company can show that the collision was due to the unskilfulness of the pilot, and not of their own master or mariners, A. Company has not wronged B..
Joint wrongs.15. (1) Joint wrong-doers are jointly and severally liable to the person wronged.
(2) Persons who agree to commit a wrong which is in fact committed in pursuance of that agreement are joint wrong-doers even if the wrongful act is committed by or under the immediate authority of some or one only of those persons.
(3) Where judgment has been recovered against some or one of joint wrong-doers without the other or others, no other suit can be brought by the same plaintiff or in his right for the same cause of action against the other or others.
(4) Any one of joint wrong-doers is not entitled to contribution or indemnity from any other of them in respect of compensation for a wrongful act which he did not at the time of doing it believe in good faith to be lawfully authorized.