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Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

Miscellaneous provisions - Vicarious liability

72: Liability of employer and principal

You could also call this:

"When workers make mistakes, their bosses can be held responsible too"

Illustration for Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994

If you work for a health care provider or a disability services provider, your employer is called an employing authority. When you do something or forget to do something as an employee, it is like your employer did it too, even if they did not know about it. You are seen as acting for your employer, so they can be held responsible for what you do.

If someone does something or forgets to do something as an agent of an employing authority, it is like the employing authority did it too, unless they did not have permission to do so. The same applies if someone does something or forgets to do something as a member of an employing authority, unless they did not have permission. In this case, the employing authority can be held responsible for what that person did.

If an employing authority is taken to court because of something an employee did or did not do, the authority can defend itself by showing it took reasonable steps to prevent the employee from doing what they did. This is according to the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994, which is related to a previous law, s 68. You can find more information about this by looking at the Act and the previous law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM334166.

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Part 5Miscellaneous provisions
Vicarious liability

72Liability of employer and principal

  1. In this section, the term employing authority means a health care provider or a disability services provider.

  2. Subject to subsection (5), anything done or omitted by a person as the employee of an employing authority shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as done or omitted by that employing authority as well as by the first-mentioned person, whether or not it was done or omitted with that employing authority’s knowledge or approval.

  3. Anything done or omitted by a person as the agent of an employing authority shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as done or omitted by that employing authority as well as by the first-mentioned person, unless it is done or omitted without that employing authority’s express or implied authority, precedent or subsequent.

  4. Anything done or omitted by a person as a member of an employing authority shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as done or omitted by that employing authority as well as by the first-mentioned person, unless it is done or omitted without that employing authority’s express or implied authority, precedent or subsequent.

  5. In any proceedings under this Act against any employing authority in respect of anything alleged to have been done or omitted by an employee of that employing authority, it shall be a defence for that employing authority to prove that he or she or it took such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent the employee from doing or omitting to do that thing, or from doing or omitting to do as an employee of the employing authority things of that description.

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