When Is a South Dakota Employer Liable for an Employee’s Car Accident?
There is a principle of common law dating back to the Roman Empire known as respondeat superior. The literal translation of this term from the original Latin is “let the master answer.” Essentially, it means that when one person (an agent) acts on behalf of another person (the principal), the principal is liable for the acts of that agent.
In present-day South Dakota personal injury law, respondeat superior often applies to car accidents. For example, let’s say you are stopped at a red light when another car rear-ends you. The driver of the other vehicle was in the process of making a delivery for their employer. Under respondeat superior, you could file a personal injury claim against both the driver and the employer. In this context, you do not need to prove the employer was negligent. Rather, by proving the employee’s negligence, you establish the employer’s liability under respondeat superior.
The Going and Coming Rule
The critical thing to understand about respondeat superior, also known as “vicarious liability,” is that it only applies in situations where the employee “acted within the scope of their employment” when the accident took place. In other words, if our hypothetical rear-end accident occurred when the employee was off-duty and not carrying out any job-related tasks, then you cannot hold the employer liable under vicarious liability.
But what about a scenario where an employee is on their way to work? Even then, South Dakota courts generally hold that is not a case where vicarious liability applies. This falls under what is often called the “going and coming rule.” In essence, an employer is not responsible for an accident that occurs while an employee is commuting from their home to work or vice versa.
A 2021 decision from the South Dakota Supreme Court, Tammen v. Tronvold, provides a real-world illustration of this rule. In this case, an on-call volunteer firefighter in Pierre was en route to a department meeting when he drove his pickup truck through an intersection, ignored a stop sign, and then had to suddenly swerve to avoid hitting a motorcycle. This caused another vehicle to hit the side of the firefighters’ truck, causing life-threatening injuries to the people in the other vehicle.
The victims subsequently filed a personal injury lawsuit naming the firefighter, the City of Pierre, and the Pierre Volunteer Fire Department as defendants. The Supreme Court ultimately held the City and the Fire Department were not vicariously liable for the accident as these facts fell squarely within the going and coming rule. The situation might have been different if the firefighter was driving a work vehicle or the department reimbursed him for his commute. But that was not the case.
Contact a Sioux Falls Car Accident Lawyer Today
Determining an employer’s potential liability for a car accident is just one of many legal questions that may need to be answered in the course of a personal injury case. For that reason, it is in your best interests to work with a qualified Sioux Falls car accident lawyer if you find yourself in this situation. Contact Hoy Law today at (605) 334-8900 to schedule a free consultation.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17590515050655740723
