Situations for Discussion
- It was Susan’s turn to drive her three classmates to university, this �me for the final exam in the business law course. Unfortunately she had le� home late, and by the �me she had picked up everyone else, they were in serious danger of arriving at least 10 minutes a�er the exam began. The weather was not good and the roads were obviously slippery—there were cars off to the side of the road in a number of loca�ons. Susan’s friends urged her to speed up, which she did, although as a rela�vely inexperienced driver she was uncomfortable handling the car under these condi�ons. As she approached a major intersec�on, the light turned amber, and Susan braked. When the car began to slide, Susan ins�nc�vely braked harder, causing the car to go out of control and enter the intersec�on, where it slid straight into the path of a car proceeding on a green light from the cross street. In the subsequent collision, one of the passengers in Susan’s car, Jean-Guy, was seriously injured.
The police arrived and, a�er inves�ga�ng the case, charged Susan with dangerous driving under the Criminal Code. In �me it became clear that Jean-Guy’s injuries had resulted not only in short-term harm—for example, because he could not sit his exam, he fell behind one term in his program—but also in permanent damage. In par�cular, his right arm and wrist were sha�ered and, being right-handed, he has and will con�nue to have limited manual dexterity. He was planning a career in IT and finds that these injuries severely affect his ability to perform basic tasks. For what categories of damages will Jean-Guy seek compensa�on?
- Reginald Smith, an employee of UR Safe Ltd., a security company, broke into a branch of a bank that was a customer of UR Safe Ltd. Smith did so when he was not on shi� with UR Safe Ltd., and by using keys he had stolen from his employer. Using these keys, Smith gained access to the ATM room in the bank but could not figure out how to open the ATM combina�on lock. He was close to
giving up when he no�ced that the bank kept an ATM instruc�on manual on a shelf right beside the ATM in the ATM room. Smith read the manual and on that basis was able to open the safe. Is UR Safe Ltd. vicariously liable for Smith’s tor�ous conduct? [footnote deleted]
