Negligence and Respondeat Superior: Should Employers be Held Responsible for Employee Negligence?

Negligence

"A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances" (West, 2008). To establish a claim of negligence, a plaintiff has to establish four elements: duty of care, breach of duty, factual causation, and damages (Berry, Sahradnik, Kotzas, & Benson, 2013). The duty of care element means that, even if a person failed to act with reasonable care, he cannot be held liable in a negligence action unless he owed a duty to the plaintiff. However, a person is generally "under a duty to all persons at all times to exercise reasonable care for their physical safety and the safety of their property" (West, 2008). The breach of duty requires that the person fail to act as a reasonable person would have in...
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