 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
White v. Revco Discount Drug Centers11/22/2000
of experience and straightforward application. In addition, these principles do not depend upon the splitting of legal hairs into meaningless distinctions, which is a hallmark of many of the other approaches.
Second, and most importantly, use of traditional agency law to resolve these types of issues corresponds most closely with prior case law from this Court. Although the issue of private employer liability for the acts of a municipal police officer employed in a private capacity is an issue of first impression in this state, this Court has previously addressed this same question in terms of private employer liability for the torts committed by a special police officer commissioned by a municipality for a particular assignment. In Terry v. Burford, 131 Tenn. 451, 175 S.W. 538 (1915), this Court applied traditional agency principles to hold the private employer vicariously liable for the torts committed by the officer, notwithstanding the officer's special commission from the municipality. See also Union Ry. Co. v. Carter, 129 Tenn. 459, 166 S.W. 592 (1914).
Although these cases do not directly control the decision in this case because of the important distinction between special officers and regular police officers-special officers usually only have the complete authority and powers of regular officers to the extent allowed by the special commission, cf. Tenn. Code Ann. ยง 8-8-212(b) (1997)-these cases are certainly persuasive authority for applying traditional agency principles to the issues involving regular officers as well. For these reasons, we conclude that issues concerning employer liability for torts committed by off-duty police officers employed as security guards are to be resolved according to traditional Tennessee agency principles.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TENNESSEE LAW OF AGENCY
Having decided that this case should be resolved with reference to Tennessee agency law, it may be necessary to review the relevant principles of agency. In its broadest sense, the concept of agency "includes every relation in which one person acts for or represents another." Kerney v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 648 S.W.2d 247, 253 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1982). An agency relationship does not require an explicit agreement, contract, or understanding between the parties, Warren v. Estate of Kirk, 954 S.W.2d 722, 725 (Tenn. 1997), and when "the facts establish the existence of an agency relationship, it will be found to exist whether the parties intended to create one or not." Harben v. Hutton, 739 S.W.2d 602, 606 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1987); see also Smith v. Tennessee Coach Co., 183 Tenn. 676, 680-81, 194 S.W.2d 867, 869 (1946). Whether an agency exists "is a question of fact under the circumstances of the particular case; and whether an agency has been created is to be determined by the relation of the parties as they in fact exist under their agreement or acts." McCay v. Mitchell, 62 Tenn. App. 424, 434, 463 S.W.2d 710, 715 (1970).
Important in the concept of agency, of course, is that a principal is generally "bound by its agent's acts done in its behalf and within the actual or apparent scope of the agency." V.L. Nicholson Co. v. Transcon Inv. & Financial Ltd., 595 S.W.2d 474, 483 (Tenn. 1980). The focus of this inquiry, however, is placed upon the actions and consent of the principal, rather than upon the agent's actions or the willingness of the agent to perform those actions. Haury & Smith Realty Co. v. Piccadilly Partners I, 802 S.W.2d 612, 615 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1990). Although the principal's right to control the actions of the agent is an important factor in finding the existence of an agency relationship, Jack Daniel Distillery, et al. v. Jackson, 740 S.W.2d 413,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tennessee Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|