Daniels v. Parker

The defendant Vermont Marble Company’s demurrer to the plaintiff’s complaint raises the single question: can a plaintiff join the employer and the employee as parties-defendant in an action of tort where the employer’s liability for the alleged negligent act of the employee is based solely on the doctrine of respondeat superior?

The plaintiff declares that he was a pedestrian lawfully using the public highway and that while so doing he was injured in a motor vehicle accident involving two automobiles, one of which, he says, was being negligently operated by the defendant George N. Parker, who…