LIABILITY OF MASTER TO HIS SERVANT. 191 



servant and failed to do so, he is liable.(a) Questions of this 

 sort are purely jury questions — "no satisfactory line can be 

 drawn at which, as a matter of law, the general owner of a 

 carriage, or rather the general employer of a driver ceases to 

 be responsible and the temporary hirer becomes so. (6) 



156. Cab-Driver is the Servant of the Proprietor. — 



Under the General Police Act, hackney carriage drivers are 

 so far regarded as the servants of the proprietors that pro- 

 vision is made for the recovery of damage done by the driver 

 from the proprietor ;(c) and generally, at common law, the 

 proprietor of a public vehicle is liable for personal injury 

 caused by the negligence of the driver,(c?) even though the 

 injury occur during a slight deviation on the driver's 

 account ; (e) but the presumption of relationship in such a 

 case yields to proof of the contrary. (/) 



5. Liability of Master to his Servant. 



157. General Liability. — A servant on entering his 

 master's employment is considered as contemplating and 

 taking the chance of all ordinary risks properly incident to 

 the particular employment in which he engages. The master 

 is bound to take all reasonable precautions which ordinary 

 prudence would suggest, but is not an insurer against all 

 risks. (^) Thus, a butcher's servant, ordered by his master 

 to drive his van, alleged that an accident occurred owing to 

 the master's failure to see that the van was in a proper 



(a) M'Lauf/hlin v. Pryor, 1842, 4 M. and G., 48 ; Gordon v. Roll, 1849, 4 Ex. 

 365. 



(b) Lord Abinger in Brady v. Giles, 1835, 1 M. and Rob. 494. 



(c) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 101, § 303 ; see also § 127. 



(d) Poides V. Buler,lS56, 25 L.J., Q.B. 331; Foider v. Lock; 1872, L.R. 

 7 C.P. 272. 



(e) Venabks v. Smith, 1877, 2 Q.B.D. 279 ; see also § 153. 

 (/) Kinyv. Spur, 1881, L.R. 8 Q.B.D. 104, 108. 



{g) Frascr, M. and S. 175. 



