Vicarious Liability: A Case Study of Regent Hotel

In the absence of proximate cause, Regent Hotel should not be held liable for breach of duty as they performed their duty of care in an appropriate manner. It was not expected from Mark that he would ignore the notice written by hotel authorities. As the hotel authorities performed their duty solemnly, it is unreasonable to hold them liable. Additionally, vicarious liability cannot apply in this case since there is no master-servant relationship between Mark and Ben.

Aspects of Contract
and negligence for
business

Table of Contents
Introduction ..............................................................................................................1
Task 1 ........................................................................................................................1
Task 2 ........................................................................................................................3
Task 3 ........................................................................................................................4
Task 4 ........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion .................................................................................................................7
References ..................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In modern scenario of developments, civil law is considered to be the mandatory principles used
in society for their betterment and to maintain discipline among them which helps them to live
together with peaceful coexistence. In the wide area of civil law the law of contract is proved to
be work efficiently in business activities as there are plenty of disputes between individuals
while doing their business activities and therefore to minimize the liability of parties and clarify
each and every term between them to make a general consensus, the existence of law of contract
is there (Ayres, I. and Schwartz, A., 2014.). In this particular report various aspects and
contentions which relate them with a valid contract are broadly explained with the help of quoted
examples.
Task 1
1.1
Emphasis of elements which are essential for a contract
 Offer and Acceptance: When a person signifies his assent to do or not to do a particular
act then it is said that an offer or proposal has been made and an acceptance is supposed
to be done when that person to whom an offer is made will communicate his free consent.
 Consent of both the Parties: To make the contract effective and working it is mandatory
that parties should have a mutual understanding and it comprises with free co00nsent of
both the parties to enter in a contract.
 Intention to form an obligation specifically legal: Both parties must have the intention to
enter into a legal contract which clearly shows their willingness also (Furmston, M.P.,
Cheshire, G.C. and Fifoot, C.H.S., 2012.).
 Consideration: It is in form of money or any other which is equivalent to it and also it is a
kind of exchange between them during the performance of contract.
 Capacity to make a contract: This implies that parties to a contract to form must be, major
i.e., parties should be greater than the age of 18 years and have a sound state of mind as
well to fulfil the competency.
 Agreement: When the promise made by both the parties will comprised of with an
adequate amount of consideration than it is said to be an agreement.
For example Bob wants to buy a book which he saw in shop of Sam and at that time the book
was on display. He took that book and wants to pay for that book but Sam told him that the
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book was already sold by him to Carl and that book was the only copy in his shop so he
denied selling that book to Bob. Carl said that he forgot to remove that book from the display
of shop. The reasoning behind this is the Sam is still entitled to refuse Bob about the selling
of book as it was just an invitation to treat which means to initiate an offer to make it a valid
contract but there is no contract between Bob and Sam.
1.2
Impact of different types of contracts
Contract is being divided between various categories and their impacts are in varying nature
from contract to contract:
 Unilateral and Bilateral contracts: Unilateral is a form of contract initiated from one side
which will fulfil a promise of a single party like contests and rewards Whereas Bilateral
contracts are formed between two different parties to complete the promises of both the
sides.
 Express and implied contracts: Express contract is a kind of contract in which every term
is specified between parties whereas the agreements in which conditions are not
specifically mentioned in written format but those terms are still in regulation to make a
contract valid.
1.3
Analysis of terms in contract
A contract is constructed by various kinds of terms which are as follows:
 Implied terms: The terms which are not specifically and clearly mentioned in a written
contract but still in continuation at the time of contract (Liming, W., 2011.).
 Express terms: These are the terms which are specifically mentioned in a contract
whether in oral or in written form.
 Conditions: Generally these are the terms which are of definite nature and compulsion of
execution of these is there during the time of formation of a contract and if these terms
will be broken then the party should be liable for breach of contract.
 Warranties: Some kinds of additional remedies which should be executed during the case
of breach of contract.
 Exclusion clause: This is the clause by which one party restricts or limits his liability.
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Task 2
2.1
Application of elements of contract in following business scenario:
In above mentioned case law there is a person named Adam who advertises and announced a
reward of £1000 in daily newspaper putting the condition that the first person to cross the English
channel while bathing from Dover to Calais. A person named Brian see that advertisement and
accordingly went out for swimming to paddle across the channel and when he was in mid of swimming
channel i.e., in course of fulfilling the condition put by Adam and then he places an another advertisement
seeking to withdraw the listed reward with immediate effect and unaware about this revocation Brian still
constitutes his work in sufficient course of time. So the question arises here is “Whether Brian is entitled
to recover the sum which was on reward or not” and the reasoning in this case said that Brian is fully
entitled to recover the expenses as it was seen in this case that this was a kind of Unilateral contract as it
was a commitment initiated by one party to give a reward to another and the acceptance of same was also
duly communicated by the way of performance or commission of that particular act enhance Adam is
liable to pay the listed award to Brian which he wrote in newspaper advertisement.
2.2 And 2.3
Business scenario:
In a case there is a person named Barry who went to a park which was fully managed by Local
council. On the entrance of park he saw a notice that chair is on hire at 50p. Barry subsequently
pays the requisite amount to hire a chair bought a ticket of 50p and acquires a chair. After that
when Barry was enjoying that chair it suddenly got collapsed and a damage occurred to Barry to
his cloths. When Barry takes this incident towards authorities and complaint for same the
attendant shows him the clause which clearly states that “Local council should not be held liable
for any injury or damage occurred to anyone due to failure of any hired equipment”. So the
question arises here is “Whether the clause entered by authorities is a valid one or not? And
whether they are in position to rely upon that clause? So the reasoning behind this scenario said
that clause is very much valid as this clause is the Exclusion clause written on ticket which itself
limits the liability because it is clause in which one party decreases the limits of their liability as
they protect themselves from damages occurred to their clients and just resembling to this
definition Local council limits their liability and hence the authorities should not be held liable
for damages occurred to Barry. That is why Barry is not entitled to receive any damage occurred
to him.
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In this particular case there was a formation of valid contract between Barry and Local council as
in these types of contract where notice is given and publically written then the formation of
contract shall be done by the performance of act or by commission of act. In these kinds of
contracts the person who is about to buy a ticket will give his consent to follow each and every
term and condition written on that particular ticket. So in this particular case there is a public
offer made by local council to everyone who wants to visit park and subsequently the acceptance
was communicated by the commission of that act (O'Sullivan, J. and Hilliard, J., 2016.).
The terms used in different contracts have their specific importance on contracts just like express
terms which are specifically mentioned either in written or in oral form clarify each and every
aspect of contract, implied terms imposed in a contract have their relevance in context of law as
they were not in written form but still in force during the execution of that contract. Exclusion
clause which limits the liability of a party in fact have their importance as just a clause written by
that party will excuse them from any kind of liability related to that particular contract.
Task 3
3.1
Liability in Torts and Contractual liability
 Liability in torts: A tort is defined as a civil wrong committed by an individual who
majorly violates the legal right of another individual. In Law of torts intention is need not
to be considered or necessary as well as the question of consent doesn’t arise in torts and
didn’t bear any significance or relevance in tortuous law. In law of torts the damages
awarded are in un-liquidated form i.e., the value of damages is not previously defined.
Law of torts bears a large ambit in civil liability as contract is the only field in which
tortuous liability will not arise as all terms and conditions are written in contractual law.
(Cornford, T., 2016.).
 Contractual liability: A contract is an agreement which is legally enforceable between
two parties to fulfil the promise made between them after paying certain consideration
which may in monitory form or in any form equivalent to that and should have some
value in eyes of law. To create a legal obligation between two parties intension is must as
well as the consent is also played an important and vital role while forming a contract.
The damages awarded in law of contract are liquidated damages i.e., the value of
damages is previously defined.
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3.2
Business Scenario:
In this particular scenario there was a person named Ben who owns a hotel named Regent in
Wembley. There was an another person named as Roger who is performing the functions of
dishwasher and was continuously generating the complaint about skin rashes that was developed
and happened to him on his hands due to long period of doing that same job. Even taking into
consideration the fact that gloves were available for employees working in hotel but they didn’t
use those gloves in general. As there are many different essentials of law of negligence which
must be of following nature like person must acquire a duty of care just like a normal prudent
person and breach of that duty was performed by that person as well as the reason behind this
concept of negligence should be of proximate nature otherwise he will be held liable for the tort
of negligence (Gardner, J., 2011.). Negligence is an act which a normal prudent person could not
do. So the question arises here is “Whether Ben is liable for the damages occurred to Roger or
not? The reasoning behind this is if someone sees this in general context then Ben should not be
held liable for this as availability of gloves to do certain job is a proximate cause and nexus to
avoid the liability of Ben (Winfield, P.H., 2013.).
3.3
Business scenario 2:
After following above mentioned scenario there was a person named Colin who was the acting
head chef in Ben’s Regent hotel and at that particular position Colin was totally got irritated from
the bad, confusing behaviour and attitude performed and showed by Roger so in fate of that
irritation Colin subsequently hits Roger by using frying pen and make him unconscious. The
question arises here in this particular context is “Whether Ben should be held vicariously liable
for the acts done by Colin?” Vicarious liability means a person or an individual is liable for the
acts done by other person on his behalf during the course of his employment and a master should
not be held liable for the acts done by a servant which was unauthorized by using authorized
manner or an act done by servant is authorized after using an unauthorized manner. This act
particularly targets Colin which did a harmful act with Roger’s life excepting the fact that Colin
was in course of employment that time but as stated above it was an unauthorized act performed
by Colin and hence Ben should not be held liable for the damages occurred to Roger.
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TASK 4
4.1 And 4.2
Application of essentials of tort of negligence and vicarious liability
In this particular scenario a person named Mark who was a frequent guest of Regent Hotel takes
a decision to swim in hotel’s pool where he reads a sign “Closing time of pool is from 7p.m to
7a.m, No Entry for visitors during this time; ‘Dangerous when attended’ but subsequently
ignores that. He jumped into that pool and due to unavailability of lights he didn’t saw that pool
clearly and injury occur to him because the pool was empty at that time enhance he lost his
valuable sunglasses.
 Application of Essentials of negligence: Essential of negligence bears a duty of care and
suddenly it comprises of breach of duty without any proximate cause (Swisher, P.N.,
2011.). In this particular case Regent Hotel should not be held liable because Regent
hotel performs their duty of care in appropriate manner. In it not expected from the part
of Mark that he will ignore that notice which was written by hotel authorities. As hotel
authorities performs their duty in solemnly so the Hotel authorities should not be held
liable.
 Application of essentials of vicarious liability: Essentials bears that there should be a
certain relationship between master and servant, the act constituted in some way
connected to master and act must be committed during course of his employment (Smith,
H.E., 2011.). In this hotel was not vicariously liable because there is not a master servant
relationship between Mark and Ben.
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CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above mentioned report that civil law whether it is contract law
or tort law is very important for society. Different terms used in different types of contracts are
very important to define the nature of a contract like express terms, implied terms and exclusion
clause. Aspects of different types of contracts are broadly explained in this report with different
situations and explained case laws as well as principles liability in torts which is a wrong other
that contract is also clearly mentioned. Further it was concluded that principle of vicarious
liability was also laid down and explained with assisted case laws. It was further concluded that
tort of negligence is majorly an attentive aspect in each and every civil wrong as the individuals
could not be held negligent on their counterpart and further if they do that than they should be
liable for breach of duty of care.
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REFERENCES
Furmston, M.P., Cheshire, G.C. and Fifoot, C.H.S., 2012. Cheshire, Fifoot and Furmston's law of contract.
Oxford university press.
O'Sullivan, J. and Hilliard, J., 2016. The law of contract. Oxford University Press.
Winfield, P.H., 2013. The Province of the Law of Tort. Cambridge University Press.
Cornford, T., 2016. Towards a public law of tort. Routledge.
Liming, W., 2011. Definitional Distinction of Tort Liability Law and Contract Law [J]. China Legal
Science. 3. p.013.
Ayres, I. and Schwartz, A., 2014. The no-reading problem in consumer contract law. Stan. L. Rev. 66.
p.545.
Badawi, A.B., 2010. Relational governance and contract damages: evidence from franchising. Journal of
Empirical Legal Studies. 7(4). pp.743-785.
Gardner, J., 2011. What is Tort Law For? Part 1. The Place of Corrective Justice. Law and
Philosophy. 30(1). pp.1-50.
Smith, H.E., 2011. Modularity and Morality in the Law of Torts. J. TORT L. 4. p.1.
Swisher, P.N., 2011. Virginia Should Abolish the Archaic Tort Defense of Contributory Negligence and
Adopt a Comparative Negligence Defense in Its Place. U. Rich. L. Rev. 46. p.359.
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