John McGrath Motors (Canberra) Pty Ltd v Applebee

John McGrath Motors (Canberra) Pty Ltd (the appellant) appealed to the High Court of Australia from a judgment of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute concerned the appellant's liability for damages arising from a motor vehicle accident in which the respondent, Mr. Applebee, sustained injuries. The accident occurred when a vehicle driven by an employee of the appellant collided with the respondent's vehicle. The core of the appeal revolved around whether the appellant was vicariously liable for the actions of its employee.

The High Court was required to determine whether the driver of the appellant's vehicle was acting within the scope of his employment at the time of the collision. Specifically, the court had to consider whether the employee's deviation from his employer's instructions constituted an act so fundamentally different from what he was employed to do that it fell outside the course of his employment, thereby absolving the employer of vicarious liability.

The High Court held that the employer was not vicariously liable. The court reasoned that the employee, in driving the vehicle to a location unrelated to his employment and for his own purposes, had embarked on a "frolic of his own." This deviation was so significant and unrelated to the employer's business that it broke the chain of causation between the employment and the employee's negligent act. The legal principle applied was that an employer is only vicariously liable for the torts of an employee committed in the course of employment, and a substantial departure from the authorised scope of employment, even if occurring during work hours, can negate this liability.