Whelan v Eason Sons

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Circuit Court
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1939
• Date: 01 January 1939

(Cir. Ct.; H.C. Cir.),

Whelan

and

Eason & Sons

Motor car - Servant leaving car in charge of a third party - Agency - Liability of master - Intervening act - Damage not the natural and probable consequence of servant's negligence.

The defendants' servant while visiting a hotel in the course of his business left his employers' motor car, which he had been driving, for the purpose of having it locked up over-night, with a porter on the hotel staff giving him the key with instructions to drive the car to the garage and bring it back in the morning; next day the porter, without the authority or knowledge of the servant, drove the car on the public highway for his own purpose and injured the plaintiffs. Held, by the Circuit Court, in an action for damages for negligence, that, although the defendants' servant was negligent in leaving the car in the custody of the hotel attendant, the accident was not in the circumstances a natural and reasonable consequence of such negligence which therefore was not the effective cause of the injury occasioned to the plaintiffs, and that...