FROLIC
Activities performed by an employee during working hours that are not considered to be in the course of his or her employment, since they are for the employee’s personal purposes only.
The doctrine of RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR
makes a principal liable for the TORTS of his or
her agent occurring during the course of
employment. This is based on the concept that a
principal has control over his or her agent’s
behavior. If an agent was hired to drive from
point A to point B, and, through reckless driv-
ing, hit a pedestrian along the way, the principal
would ordinarily be held liable. If, however, the
agent was engaged in frolic, the principal would
not be liable. This might occur, for example, if
an employee were hired to transport goods from
point A to point B and made several detours
along the way for personal reasons. If the
employee became involved in an accident while
on a frolic, the employer would not be liable
unless it could be established that he or she was
negligent in the hiring or supervision of the
