Employers’ liability is a form of strict in that it holds the employer responsible for any harmful actions committed by their employee(s). In this way, the individual who is in charge must absorb the consequences as long as their employee(s) remain within the scope of practice that the employer set forth. “Respondent superior” is another way of describing such an aspect of strict liability as it is literally translated as “let the master answer.”
One of the earliest forms of employer liability legislature came in the form of the “Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) of 1908. This particular act served to protect the labor rights of railroad workers at the time who were constantly at risk for injury. Under this statute, workers were able to attain compensation due to comparative negligence
In addition to the lengthy process that must accompany pursuit of employers’ liability as opposed to what we now know as workers’ compensations, we must be aware of the fact that according to such a statute, the employer is only accountable for harm caused by the formers “breach of a duty” afforded to the plaintiff. An example of this would be the employer’s own negligence in the incident in question. In such a case, negligence by fellow workers will have no effect on the judgment.
