Page:Employers' liability.djvu/11

7 of another company who were the agents of the first company for the completion of the journey. For example, if the contract of carriage was from London to Inverness, and part of the journey was in the carriages and with the servants of a Scotch railway company, the first company would be liable on their contract that due care should be used throughout. In these cases no question of master and servant arises: the question is one of contract. The contractor has not performed his contract. He has contracted that a certain thing shall be done in a certain way: he has not done it according to his contract, either by himself or his deputy. The reason of this liability is obvious. The parties have contracted for care. In this case the servant or agent is not liable.

2nd. The next case in which a man is liable for the act of another which causes injury is, where he has caused or commanded that act. If A orders or procures B to beat C, A is as much liable to C as though he, A, had given all the blows. So if a man employs a builder to build a house of such a size and in such a place that when built it will obscure his neighbour's lights, he is as much liable as though he built the house with his own hands. This class of cases also has nothing to do with the relation of master and servant. The employer is equally liable whether the person who did the act complained of was his servant, or his agent and not his servant. In this case the actual doer of the act—viz., the