Vicarious Liability

Vicarious liability should also be distinguished from the closely related concept of strict liability. Under strict liability, the defendant must engage in prohibited conduct, but the separate requirement that the defendant have a culpable mens rea—some degree of fault—is removed. Vicarious liability, in contrast, dispenses with the requirement that the defendant engage in the prohibited conduct, instead holding the defendant liable for the conduct of another. For example, a law holding X liable for selling alcohol to Y, a minor, even though X reasonably believed Y was over twenty-one, imposes strict liability. A law holding W, X's employer, liable for X's sale to Y imposes vicarious liability. Laws can (and sometimes do) impose strict and vicarious liability simultaneously—for example, a law that held W liable for X's sale to a minor even though W and X had taken reasonable precautions to avoid such sales. However, laws can also impose either kind of liability separately.