Week 7 Discussion

Click here to watch the video

One of the most fundamental issues in business law involves the question of when a company can be held liable for the acts of an individual person, whether this involves a contractual obligation or a personal injury (meaning a tort).  Choose one of the scenarios below and explain whether or not you think the business is liable for the acts under the principles of agency law.

• A real estate agent hires a handful of local kids to do the landscaping of homes that he is trying to sell.  In addition to the general payment, he reimburses them for the cost of gasoline for lawn mowers and other equipment.  While mowing a lawn, one of the kids loses control of a lawn mower and it mows down a neighbors very expensive collection of lawn gnomes.
• In a hurry to get his apartment complex painted, a homeowner hires three people he meets at the local home improvement store to do the work.  Since they’re not professional painters, he provides all of the equipment and paint needed to do the work.  While at the apartment complex, one of them breaks into an apartment, assaults the resident and steals a wallet.
• An entrepreneur decides to open up his own car-for-hire business, and creates an app allowing anyone to connect with people who need a ride.  The passengers pay the entrepreneur, who in turn pays a percentage to the driver.  Other than the app, the entrepreneur has no other involvement between the driver and the passenger.  One night, a driver who is intoxicated picks up a passenger and then gets into an accident, and the passenger is severely injured.
• Peer response:
• Perfect. I have attached a classmate's response below. Thank you. RE: Week 7 DiscussionHello everyone.A real estate agent hires a handful of local kids to do the landscaping of homes that he is trying to sell.  In addition to the general payment, he reimburses them for the cost of gasoline for lawn mowers and other equipment.  While mowing a lawn, one of the kids loses control of a lawn mower and it mows down a neighbors very expensive collection of lawn gnomes.  According to the definition; agency law is a relationship which one person has legal authority to act for another. With that being said, in this scenario, the real estate agent in legally responsible to replace the neighbor's lawn gnomes. The agent hired kids to do the work. The scenario did not specify whether or not the agent trained the kids on how to properly use the lawn equipment. It was the duty of the agent to make sure that the kids were trained. I also think he would be liable because it was kids, not adults. Now, if it was adults, the neighbors still come after the agent, because he hired them, but the agent could then go after the adults for the incident. It is the responsibility of the agent to make sure that whoever is hired by him, is knowledgeable and trained on using lawn equipment. This does NOT apply the the kids, but, he should make sure that something is signed that states that he is not responsible for damages that occur while using the equipment.