Question 2 (a)
When a sub-agent may be appointed, and the principal's liability to third parties
6 marks
- Time to write
- About 12 minutes
- Topic
- Agency
- Notes
- Crux notes
Question
Question 2 (a) · 6 marksDiscuss when a sub agent may be appointed and when one may not be appointed. What impact will it have on the principal’s liability toward third parties.
Reworded from the university paper; the task is the same. The original paper belongs to the University of Delhi. See DU's question bank.
Before you write
Read off the question and its marks
Read from the question
- DiscussEach point named and explained, not just listed.
Write it in this order
- Read; underline the asks; jot your points 1 min
- 1 General rule against delegation and its exceptions (s. 190); sub-agent defined (s. 191) 3 marks 5 min
- 2 Principal's liability: properly appointed (s. 192) and unauthorised (s. 193) sub-agent 3 marks 5 min
- Check: every ask answered, key terms underlined 1 min
Short on time? Trim steps 1 and 2 evenly rather than skip one: each is capped at its own marks.
Try it first. About 12 minutes for 6 marks. Write it out, then open the solution.
Solution
Hover or tap a marked figure, like 72,000, to see how it is made and where else it appears.
When a sub-agent may be appointed (s. 190). An agent cannot lawfully employ another to perform acts he has expressly or impliedly undertaken to perform personally (delegatus non potest delegare: agency rests on the principal's confidence in the agent). A sub-agent may, however, be employed where the ordinary custom of trade allows it, or where the nature of the agency requires it; the appointment is also valid where the terms of the agency originally contemplated it, or where an unforeseen emergency in the course of the agency makes delegation necessary. “A sub-agent is a person employed by, and acting under the control of, the original agent in the business of the agency” (s. 191).
Effect on the principal's liability:
- Sub-agent properly appointed (s. 192): the principal is liable to third parties for the sub-agent's acts; the agent is responsible to the principal for them; and the sub-agent is responsible to the agent, not to the principal, except for fraud or wilful wrong.
- Sub-agent appointed without authority (s. 193): the agent alone answers for the sub-agent's acts, to the principal and to third persons alike; the principal is not responsible for them, and the sub-agent answers only to the agent. Where a carrier handed the goods to another carrier and they were damaged in transit, the first carrier was held liable.
Conclusion. A properly appointed sub-agent binds the principal to third parties as the agent himself would; an unauthorised one does not, and the agent then bears the consequences himself.
Where the 6 marks sit
| # | Component | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | General rule against delegation and its exceptions (s. 190); sub-agent defined (s. 191) | 3 |
| 2 | Principal's liability: properly appointed (s. 192) and unauthorised (s. 193) sub-agent | 3 |
| Total | 6 |
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