South Carolina-Can an uninsured driver’s company be held responsible for driver’s accident when not driving one of the company’s vehicle?
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South Carolina-Can an uninsured driver’s company be held responsible for driver’s accident when not driving one of the company’s vehicle?
Uninsured driver hits parked car. He is a driver for a package delivery service. Can that company be held liable for his driving when he is not in their vehicle?
Asked on June 29, 2009 under Accident Law, South Carolina
Answers:
B. B., Member, New Jersey Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 15 years ago | Contributor
Only if he was on company business at the time.
In some cases, a company can't be sued for an accident even if it was their vehicle, if the employee was using it completely for his own purposes, without the employer's permission to do so. The older cases sometimes refer to this as "frolic and detour." On the other hand, anything that happens because of a company's employee's negligence, while he or she is doing his job more or less as expected by the employer, is the employer's responsibility, even when the employee is the owner of the vehicle.
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