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Maritime Transport Act 1994

General offences and provisions in relation to offences and appeals under this Act - General provisions in respect of offences

410: Liability of principal for acts of agents

You could also call this:

"Being responsible for what your workers do"

Illustration for Maritime Transport Act 1994

You can be held responsible for something someone else does if they work for you. This is because the law says you are liable for what your employees or agents do. You are liable in the same way as if you did it yourself. If someone takes you to court because of something your employee did, you have a defence. You can say you did not know the offence was happening and you could not have known. You can also say you took steps to stop the offence from happening. If you are in charge of a company and it breaks the law, you can be guilty of the same offence. This happens if you gave permission for the offence to happen and you knew or should have known it was happening. You must have also failed to stop the offence from happening.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM338368.

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Part 28General offences and provisions in relation to offences and appeals under this Act
General provisions in respect of offences

410Liability of principal for acts of agents

  1. Where an offence is committed against this Act by any person acting as the agent or employee of another person, that other person shall, without prejudice to the liability of the first-mentioned person, be liable under this Act in the same manner and to the same extent as if he, she, or it had personally committed the offence.

  2. Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), where any proceedings are brought by virtue of that subsection, it shall be a good defence if the defendant proves,—

  3. in the case of a natural person (including a partner in a firm), that—
    1. he or she did not know nor could reasonably be expected to have known that the offence was to be or was being committed; or
      1. he or she took all reasonable steps to prevent the commission of the offence:
      2. in the case of a body corporate, that—
        1. neither the directors nor any person involved in the management of the body corporate knew or could reasonably be expected to have known that the offence was to be or was being committed; or
          1. the body corporate took all reasonable steps to prevent the commission of the offence:
          2. in all cases, that the defendant took all reasonable steps to remedy any effects of the act or omission giving rise to the offence.

            1. Where any body corporate is convicted of an offence against this Act, every director and every person concerned in the management of the body corporate shall be guilty of the like offence if it is proved—

            2. that the act that constituted the offence took place with his or her authority, permission, or consent; and
              1. that he or she knew or could reasonably be expected to have known that the offence was to be or was being committed and failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent or stop it.

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