Plaintiff employed by defendant as deckhand on tug.
Captain of tug employed not by defendant but by
defendant’s parent company.
defendant’s parent company.
Captain’s negligence caused plaintiff to be injured.
House of Lords held:
1. Employer
owes his employee duty to exercise reasonable care to ensure that system of
work provided for employee is safe one.
owes his employee duty to exercise reasonable care to ensure that system of
work provided for employee is safe one.
2. This has two
aspects:
aspects:
a. Devising of
such a system
such a system
b. Operation of
it.
it.
3. Duty is
non-delegable.
non-delegable.
Here defendants delegated both devising and operating
of system to captain, who was not their servant.
of system to captain, who was not their servant.
Captain failed to operate safe system.
Defendants therefore failed to operate safe system.
Defendants personally liable to plaintiff.
