LEGAL PRINCIPLE: Employers/Principles are vicariously liable, under the respondent superior doctrine, for negligence acts or omissions by their employees/agents in the course of employment/agency. A servant/agent may be defined as any person employed by another to do work for him on the terms that he, the servant/agent, is to be subject to the control and directions of his employer/principal in respect of the manner in which his work is to be done.
FACTUAL SITUATION: A motor car was owned by and registered and insured in the name of A (wife) but was regarded by her and her husband (B) as "our car". B used it to go to work, and A for shopping at the weekends. B told A that if ever he was drunk and unfit to drive through, he would get a sober friend to drive him or else telephone her to come and fetch him. On the day in question the husband telephoned the wife after work and told her that he was going out with friends. He visited a number of public houses and had drinks. At some stage, he realised that he was unable to drive safely and asked a friend C, to drive. C drove them to other public houses. After the last visit, C offered the three friends (X,Y and Z) a lift and they got in, together with B who was in a soporific condition. C then proceeds, at his won suggestion, to drive in a direction away from the B's home to have a meal. On the way, due to C's negligent driving, an accident occurred in which both B and C were killed and the other friends got injured. X. Y and Z brought an action against the wife both in her personal capacity and as administrators of the husband's estate. Decide whether A is liable?
DECIDE.