McNamara v. Chapman

The case presents certain questions concerning the respective liabilities of a master and his servant for the latter’s unauthorized negligent acts, done in the course of the master’s business, and of the correlative rights of the party injured by such negligence. The subject is one upon which there is but little authority in this jurisdiction. The decisions in other states and in England lack uniformity. Beyond the elementary rules that the master is liable under the maxim respondeat superior, and that the servant may be answerable for his own wrong in a suit by the injured party, or by the…