Frolic (law)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A frolic in the law of torts is where an employee acts on his/her own without obeying an order. When combined with a detour, where the employee makes a temporary physical departure from the service of his employer, the employer is not vicariously liable through the doctrine of respondeat superior for torts committed by an employee on a frolic and a detour. Similarly, in the law of workers' compensation, an employer is not liable for injuries incurred by an employee during a frolic and a detour.

To constitute a frolic and detour, the activity must be unequivocally unrelated to the employer's business. Thus, when the vice president of a bank traveling on business brought a woman not his wife to his hotel room, and then started smoking, accidentally started a fire, and both died as a result, the vice president's wife and children were still able to recover death benefits. Wiseman v. Industrial Accident Commission, 46 Cal. 2d 570 (1956). The employee's occupation of the room was clearly related to his employment, and regardless of whether his guest was there for a legitimate purpose or not, it was reasonable to expect employees traveling on business to entertain guests in their hotel rooms.

[edit] References