1. Legal Principle: A master shall be responsible for the wrongful acts of his servants in the course of his employment. Factual Situation: A syndicate bank was running a small savings scheme under which its authorized agents would go round and collect small savings from several people on daily basis. These agents would get a commission on the deposits so collected. Ananth was one such agent, collecting deposits from factory workers engaged on daily wages. Though he regularly carried on his business for some time, slowly he started misappropriating deposits for his personal use, and one day he just disappeared. One Fatima, who had been handing over her savings to him found that nearly for a month before his disappearance, he was not depositing her savings at all. The bank, when approached, took the stand that Ananth was not its regular and paid employee and, therefore, it was not responsible for his misconduct. She files a suit against the bank.

2. Legal Principle:
1. A person defames another if he states anything, which exposes the other to hatred or ridicule or results in him being shunned by others or injures him in his trade, business or profession.
2. To commit the offence of defamation, there must be communication of defamatory statement to a third party. Factual Situation: A, a patient of B, is dissatisfied with the treatment. He discontinues the treatment and after sometime leaves the city. After a while, his illness was automatically cured by lapse of time. A was upset because B has made him spent a lot of money on his illness which was cured on its own. He writes a letter accusing B for cheating. He alleges that B magnified the effects of the illness, deliberately treated him in a manner so that it persisted and also cause deterioration of his health. The letter is shown by B to his lawyer. In consultation with the lawyer, B files a suit for damages against A for defamation.

3. Legal Principle: A person shall be liable to compensate for the damage caused by his servant in the course of employment. Factual Situation: BHEL, a public sector undertaking in Bangalore has a contract with Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) where under a few BTS buses are exclusively used to transport BHEL drivers would drive the bus, but the bus would prominently carry a board: ‘Only for BHEL employees’. On a given day, the BTS bus after dropping the employees at the factory was getting back to the BTS garage so that it would be available for regular BTS services. It was still carrying the board: ‘Only for BHEL employees’. Shankar, a bystander waiting for BTS bus to go to a particular place, got into the bus and paid 10 to go to a place, which is on the way to garage. On the way, due to the driver’s negligence, the bus met with an accident and Shankar suffered injuries.

4. Legal Principle: A person cannot complain against a harm to which he has voluntarily consented. Precautions can be taken only against reasonably foreseeable mishaps. Factual Situation: At an athletic meet, during a hammer throw, the hammer came apart and hit a middle distance runner who was sitting 10 meters outside the throwing area. The runner sustained severe injuries on the head and neck. The runner filed a suit for damages. The standard precautions were taken for throwing the 7 kilogram hammer. The runner:
I. Would be able to recover because the organizers had failed to keep the equipment in good condition. II. Would not be able to recover because the injuries were caused in a freak accident. III. Would not be able to recover because she had agreed to participate in the sports meet with all the attendant risks. IV. Would not be able to recover because the accident was not reasonably foreseeable.

5. Legal Principle: A master will be liable for the act of his servants in the course of employment. Factual Situation: Hanuman was a driver employed by Hindustan Petroleum to drive their petrol lorries. He was strictly forbidden from smoking in course of employment. That warning was printed in the body of the vehicle he was driving. One day when he was transferring petrol from his tank to the underground tank of Maruthi Filling Station, he struck a match to light a cigarette and threw it on floor. It caused an explosion damaging the properties of Maruthi Filling Station. Maruthi Filling Station filed a suit against the Hindustan Petroleum claiming damages.

6. Legal Principle: An employer shall be liable to the injuries caused to his employee by the negligence of a fellow employee in course of employment. Factual Situation: Kannappa and Veerappa were two employees working in the textile factory of Gokuldas. One day, Kannappa came to the factory in an inebriated stage and his hands were not steady while operating the machine. As a result, Veerappa who just happened to go near the machine for some work got injured. He filed a suit against Gokuldas for compensation.

7. Legal Principle: A master shall be liable for the fraudulent acts committed by his servants in the course of employment. Factual Situation: Shaila Devi opened a Savings Bank account with Oriental Bank, and a cousin of her by name Mohan, who was a clerk in that bank, helped her to complete the formalities; subsequently she used to entrust whatever money she was getting to Mohan along with her passbook and Mohan used to return the passbook with relevant entries. One day Shaila Devi discovered that Mohan, instead of crediting the money to her account, was misappropriating the money but making entries in the passbook without authorization. Shaila Devi seeks compensation from Oriental Bank.

8. Legal Principle – 1: Same for 35 and 36. A master is liable for the wrongs committed by his servant during the course of employment but not for the acts of an independent contractor. Legal Principle – 2: Same for 35 and 36. Whether a person is a servant of another or not is to be determined by finding out who controls the method of work or owns the tools or who benefits by the profit of the venture or bears the loss. Factual Situation: Bikash Hospital is a wellknown hospital and Dr K.N. Joseph is a cardiologist in the hospital. He is also attached to few other hospitals, as the service rules of Bikash Hospital do not prohibit it. Due to the negligence of Dr Joseph, the patient of the hospital dies and his children decide to file a suit against the Bikash Hospital and Dr Joseph.

9. Legal Principle: Qui facit per alium facit per se, which means, he who does an act through another is deemed in law to do it himself. Factual Situation: A gave some amount and cheques to his friend B, who was an employee of the State Bank of India, to deposit the same in the account of his wife C. The employee misappropriated the amount. C files a suit against the State Bank of India. Choose the correct option.

10. Legal Principle: A person is entitled to protect his property by using lawful means. Factual Situation: Ramlal is growing valuable vegetables and fruits in his farm and he has fenced the farm to prevent the cattle from entering into it. In addition, he has kept a ferocious dog to chase away intruding urchins and cattles. Some children were playing in a nearby playground and the ball slipped into the farm. A boy who was running after the ball came near the fence and shouted for the ball. But when there was no response, he managed to creep into the farm to get the ball. The dog which was surreptitiously waiting attacked the boy and badly mauled him. The boy’s parents filed a suit against Ramlal.

11. Legal Principle: A master will be liable for the wrongful acts of his servants in the course of employment. Factual Situation: Raman had a regular Savings Bank account in Karnataka Bank in which he used to deposit money from time to time. One day, when he wanted to withdraw some big amount, he discovered that two entries in his passbook, immediately prior to the date of withdrawal, were not authenticated by the manager, as required under banking rules. The bank declined the responsibility for these entries and the manager disclaimed any knowledge in this regard. Raman filed a suit against the bank.

12. Legal Principle: Violation of a legal right, with or without damage, gives rise to a tort. Factual Situation: A establishes a coaching class and charges 5,000 per year as fees. A’s neighbor B establishes another coaching class thereby creating a competition; this forces A to reduce his fees to 3,000 per year. Question: Can A claim damages from B for the loss caused to him?

13. Legal Principle: A person is liable for all the injurious consequences of his careless act. Factual Situation: Ram, a snake charmer, was exhibiting his talents to a group of people. One of the snakes escaped and bit a child who had to be hospitalized for 2 days for treatment.

14. Legal Principle: Everybody is under a legal obligation to take reasonable care to avoid commission or omission which he can foresee would injure his neighbor. The neighbor for this purpose be any person whom he should have in his mind as likely to be affected by his act. Factual Situation: Ram, while rushing to board a moving train, pushed Shyam who was walking along with a heavy package, containing firecrackers. As a result, the package slipped from his hand and the crackers exploded injuring a boy standing closely. A suit was filed against Ram, by the boy, claiming damages.

15. Legal Principle: Contractual liability is completely irrelevant to the existence of liability in tort (civil wrong). Factual Situation: X purchased a bottle of ginger-beer from a retailer. As she consumed more than 3/4 of the contents of the bottle, she found a decomposed remains of a snail in the bottle. After seeing the remains of a snail, she fell sick on the thought of what she consumed. She sued the manufacturer of the beer for negligence, though there is no contractual duty on the part of the manufacturer.

16. Legal Principle: Where an offence is committed by a company, every person who at the time when the offences was committed, was responsible for the conduct of the business of the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable for punishment. Factual Situation: Amit is employed as a peon in a finance company. The company defrauds many people and all the directors of the company abscond. The police arrests Amit for offence of fraud. Is Amit guilty of the offence?

17. Legal Principle: A person is entitled to use reasonable force for self-defence. Factual Situation: Gokul was living in a farmhouse with a few family members. One night, a group of robbers broke open the door of the house and there was scuffle between the intruders and the residents. Gokul took out his pistol and fired a shot at one of the intruders. The shot did not hit the target and the robbers ran out of the house and by that time, the neighbors gathered in front of the house. Gokul in a fit of anger came out of the house and fired at fleeing robbers who by that time mingled with the neighbors. The shot injured a neighbor and he filed a suit against Gokul.

18. Legal Principle: A citizen is expected to take reasonable duty of care while driving on the road and not to cause injuries to any person. Factual Situation: X, the owner of a car, asked his friend Y to drive the car to his office. As the car was near his (X’s) office, it hit a pedestrian P on account of Y’s negligent driving and injured him seriously. P sued X for damages. Which one of the following is correct?

19. Legal Principle: One has to compensate another for the injury caused due to his wrongful act. The liability to compensate is reduced to the extent the latter has contributed to the injury through his own negligence. This is the underlying principle of contributory negligence. Factual Situation: Veerappa owns a farm at a distance of half a furlong from the railway track. He stored in his land stacks of dried up straw after the cultivation as is normal in farming. One day when the train was passing through the track, the driver was negligently operating the locomotive by allowing it to emit large quantities of spark. The high wind, normal in open fields, carried the sparks to the stacks stored by Veerappa and the stacks caught fire thereby causing extensive damage. Veerappa filed a suit against the Railways claiming damages. The Railways while acknowledging liability alleged contributory negligence on the part of Veerappa.

20. Legal Principle: Nobody shall make use of his property in such a way as to cause damage to others. Any such use constitutes private nuisance, a wrongful act under law of torts. Factual Situation: Vasan was living in his own house, adjacent to a cluster of houses, owned by Varadan. Varadan was leasing out these houses, whereas Vasan was living in his house. When Vasan was transferred to another place, he leased out his house to a person suffering from AIDS. Fearing the spread of AIDS, the tenants moved out of Varadan’s houses. Varadan requested Vasan to evict AIDS patient and he offered to fix a suitable tenant for Vasan’s house, if the AIDS patient is evicted. But Vasan refused by arguing that AIDS would not spread as feared by Varadan’s tenants. Varadan filed a suit against Vasan.

21. In which of the following cases, P did not owe duty of care to Q.

22. Legal Principle: Where the owner of a vehicle, being himself in possession and occupation of it, requests or allows another person to drive, the owner is liable as principal for damage caused by the person actually driving. Factual Situation: Dr Ramayya took his car to Dolphin Co., Ltd., a garage which he had been frequenting, for servicing. Since Dolphin Co. Ltd. was out of the way, Dr Ramayya requested the owner to drop him near the bus terminal so that he may get back to his work. The owner directed a mechanic by name Shanker to drop Dr Ramayya in the same car, which he had brought for servicing, and bring the car back. On the way the car collided with a lorry, due to negligence of Shankar. The owner of the lorry, James, is seeking legal advice as to the course of action.

23. Legal Principle: According to the doctrine of vicarious liability, a person shall be liable for the damage caused by his employee in the course of employment. Factual Situation: Kishenlal is a big trader in coffee and he appointed Kiran as his agent to procure coffee from the coffee growers in a particular region. Normally, Kiran used to collect coffee beans from the growers and the payments would be made within a month. This arrangement was going on for something. There arose some problems between Kishenlal and Kiran, and Kishenlal terminated Kiran’s employment. Kiran continued to procure coffee even thereafter and he disappeared with the coffee so procured. The coffee growers filed a suit against Kishenlal claiming payment.

24. Legal Principle: Contributory negligence in an accident is a defence to a charge in criminal law. Factual Situation: X, the deceased was negligently crossing the busy road at Connaught Place in Delhi while Y’s car hit him resulting in death of X. What is the liability of Y?

25. Legal Principle:
1. Master is liable for the wrongful acts committed by the servants, in the course of their employment if third parties suffer damages in consequence.
2. However, the master is not liable if the wrongful act was committed by the servant has no connection whatsoever with the servant’s contract of employment.
3. If a person by an act lowers the reputation of another in the eye of right thinking people, then the person who suffered loss of reputation can sue for damages. Factual Situation: Rajiv is a servant of Jawahar. On his way to Jawahar’s house to report for duty, he goes to have a cup of coffee. There he sees Mr Singh and accuses him of being a dishonest person. Mr Singh wants to sue Jawahar, as Rajiv is Jawahar’s servant.