Question

lloyd vs grace smith case study​

Answer 1

Answer:

References: [1912] AC 716, [1912] UKHL 1

Links: Bailii

Coram: Lord Macnaghten, Earl Loreburn LC

Ratio: Mrs Lloyd delivered the title deeds of her cottages at Ellesmere Port to the solicitors’ fraudulent managing clerk.

Held: Vicarious liability can extend to fraudulent acts or omissions if those were carried out in the course of the employment or within the scope of the apparent authority, albeit by an employee or a partner conducting the business of a type which he had a right to conduct. The principal was liable for the fraud of the agent because conveyancing is part of the ordinary business of solicitors. The client had been invited by the firm to deal with their managing clerk. It was irrelevant that the agent acted with a dishonest purpose for his own ends. His act was of the class or kind of acts which fall within the ordinary business of solicitors.

Jurisdiction: England and Wales

This case cites:

Cited – McGowan and Co v Dyer ((1873) LR 8 QB 141)

Story on Agency states the general rule that the principal is liable to third persons in a civil suit ‘for the frauds, deceits, concealments, misrepresentations, torts, negligences, and other malfeasances or misfeasances, and omissions of duty of