LEG500 - Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
Professor: Benjamin M. Shushan

Assignment #3 - Employer's Duty of Care

Explain Whether Jake's Actions Are in or out of "His Scope of Employment"

Working as a mechanic, Jake's actions are within the scope of his employment. Scope of employment is "the range of conduct and activity within which an employee can reasonably be considered to be carrying out the business of his or her employer" (Merriam-Webster's dictionary of law, 1996, P.444). It refers to an employee actively involved in an employment task at a particular time, usually in issue when an accident occurs, which is required to make a claim for work-related injury under state Worker's Compensation Acts. The decision of whether an employee is engaged in duties in the scope of employment depends on whether the actions of an employee further the business of the employer and, thereby, it makes an employer liable for damages due to such actions. If the actions of an employee improve the business of the employer, such employee's actions are