Discuss Whether the Principal Is Liable in Each of the Following

question 53

Essay

Discuss whether the principal is liable in each of the following situations.
a. Patricia hires Andrew, an attorney, to negotiate a contract to purchase some property. She agrees to pay him $75 an hour for his services, and he agrees to use his own office and secretarial staff to negotiate and draft the agreement. One day, Andrew is driving his own automobile to a meeting with Edward to discuss the purchase of the land that he owns. Andrew drives too fast for conditions and has a minor traffic accident that results in $600 damage to the other vehicle.
b. Mel owns a retail store. He hires Sarah to work for him as a clerk in the home furnishings department. Mel instructs Sarah to make certain representations to customers regarding a microwave oven. Mel knows these misrepresentations are false, but Sarah does not. Henrietta buys a microwave from Sarah in reliance on the misrepresentations.
c. ABC Inc. hires Keith as an outside salesman and instructs him to call on customers in a specified territory and to solicit orders for its products. One day Keith is driving the company car a little too fast for conditions on his way to call on a client. He accidentally drives the wrong way on a one-way street and has an accident with another vehicle that results in $6,000 in property damage and $30,000 in medical expenses.
d. The A & B Machine Company (ABMC) hires John as an outside salesman for its computers. It sets high sales quotas for him and instructs him to beat up salesmen from competing firms in order to keep them away from ABMC customers. In order to meet his monthly sales quota, John roughs up Ralph, who is a salesman for a competing firm and then tells Ralph to find his own customers and to stay away from John's territory.

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Definitions:

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

Time-driven activity-based costing is an approach to costing that assigns resource costs directly to products or services based on the actual time spent on activities, improving accuracy and simplifying the costing process.

Customer Service Department

A division of a business dedicated to addressing customer inquiries, complaints, and providing assistance.

Customer Cost Analysis

The process of evaluating all costs involved in acquiring and maintaining customers, often used to assess the profitability of customer relationships.

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

A costing method that assigns costs to products or services based on the time resources are utilized and the cost of those resources.