Mafulu Pty Limited v Mather

Mafulu Pty Limited (the appellant) appealed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal against a decision 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. Mather, sustained injuries. The primary issue was whether the appellant, as the employer of the driver, was vicariously liable for the driver's negligence.

The Court of Appeal 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 accident. Specifically, the court had to consider whether the driver's deviation from his employer's instructions, in undertaking a personal errand, constituted a departure from his employment so significant as to break the chain of vicarious liability.

The Court of Appeal held that the driver's actions, while a deviation from his employer's instructions, were still sufficiently connected to his employment to render the appellant vicariously liable. The court applied the principle that an employer is liable for the torts of an employee committed in the course of employment, even if those torts involve a deviation from instructions, provided the deviation is not so fundamental as to be considered an act done on the employee's own account. The court found that the driver's errand, though personal, was undertaken during a period when he was otherwise engaged in his employer's business and did not represent a complete abandonment of his employment.

The appeal was dismissed.