Legal—Recent Decisions.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 8, 1 June 1907, Page 285

Legal — Recent Decisions.

The i,oan of a servant. Negligence of THE SERVANT. WHOSE LIABILITY ? — Tasker & Sons, I<td., hired out an engine to the Subsoil Removal Company and supplied a driver and paid him. The driver, however, took his orders from the Subsoil Company which directed where the engine was to go and what it was to carry. Mr. Dewar was injured by the negligence of the driver, sued Tasker & Sons, and was awarded £10 10/damages by the County Court Judge. Held by the Court of Appeal that the County Court judge was right, and that, as Tasker & Sons appointed the driver, paid him and could dismiss him, they had control over him and were liable for his negligence. Master & servant. Servant's illness. Right of master to dismiss. — The Fulham Steel Works Company in 1903 agreed to employ Mr. Storey as works manager at a yearly salary of £400 for five years, but the agreement said nothing about its termination before the end of that time. In 1905 Mr. Storey was ill and absent from work from time to time. In January 1906 he was seriously ill through overwork, paralysis was suspected, and his doctor said that he must have a considerable amount of rest in bed. In consequence, he continued to be absent from work, and in April 1906 the Company terminated his agreement. In May 1906, however, he recovered and, being ready for work again, sued the Company for damages. Held by Channell, J., that the agreement was an absolute contract for a number of years and that as it contained no provision for putting an end to it if the servant was absent from time to time through temporary illness, the loss fell upon the employer; but that if the illness were permanent, the employer could give the servant notice there and then ; that here the circumstances did not justify the Company in thinking that Mr. Storey would never be able to perform the remainder of the agreement and that as he might be expected to earn £250 a year, he had sustained a loss of £150 a year which for two years and four months came to £350 in all. For that amount Mr. Storey got judgment. The moral is, see that agreements with employees contain a clause enabling the employer to put an end to them (the agreements not the employees). Storey v Fulham Steel Works Company. 23 t Times L.R. 306.