Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Ltd v Coggins and Griffith (Liverpool) Ltd [1946] 2 All ER 345 HL

Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Ltd v Coggins and Griffith (Liverpool) Ltd

Date:

31 December 1946

In Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Ltd v Coggins and Griffith (Liverpool) Ltd [1946] 2 All ER 345 HL, the House of Lords held that where a crane was hired with a driver and that driver was negligent, the driver's employer would be vicariously liable. Where the negligence was in the way in which the hirer used the crane then the hirer would for that purpose be the employer of the driver. The terms of the contract between the hirer and the employer cannot affect liability to the injured person.