LIABILITY, MEANING, TYPES

AND THEORIES
Liability

 Definition By Salmond;

“Liability or responsibility is the bond of

necessity that exists between the wrongdoer
and the remedy of wrong”.
Meaning of
Liability

 The quality or state of being legally obligated

or accountable; Legal responsibility to
another or to society.

 Enforceable by Civil remedy or Criminal

punishment.
Count.

 Give two Senses

1. Synonym Duty
.
2. Antonym Immunity
.
Types of
liability
 Civil Liability
 Is the enforcement of the right
of the plaintiff against the defendant in civil
proceedings.
 Civil wrong is against a private individual and
the remedy is damages.
 Criminal Liability
 Crime is a wrong committed
against the society and remedy is punishment.

 Liability in a crime is measured by the intention

of the wrongdoer.
Measures of a Criminal
liability
 Motive of the offence
Motive is said to be the ulterior intent. The ulterior intend is
called motive.
 Intention
The fore-knowledge of the act.
Salmon
 “ The purpose of design with which an act is done. It is
the Fore-knowledge of the act, coupled with the desire of it.
Such fore-knowledge and desire being the cause of the act”
Count
.
 Magnitude in the offence
The greater the magnitude of the offence, the greater
should be its punishment .

 The character of the offender

The worse character of the offender the more severe
should be the punishment.
Vicarious
Liability
 According to the principle of vicarious liability when one
person is liable for the wrongful acts done by another
person.

 Acc to Salmond
“in general a person is responsible for his
own acts, but there are exceptional cases in which the
law imposes on him vicarious responsibility for the acts
done by others, however blameless himself.”
 Relationship can be in form of

 Principal and agent.

 Partners of a partnership firm.
 Master and servant.

 Principal is liable for any act committed by his agent during

the course of employment.
Strict
Liability

 Definition:
A man is held responsible for the acts committed by
himself but there is an exception to this rule in which a
man is responsible irrespective of the existence of either
wrongful intent or negligence. And this is known as
wrongs of strict liability.
 Ryland V. Flatcher (Case Law)
 Held

 “ the person who, for his own purposes, brings on his

land, and collects and keeps there anything likely to do
mischief, if it escapes, must keep it in his peril and if he does
not do so, is prima facie answerable for all the damage
which is natural consequence of its escape”
Theories of
Liability
 Theory of Remedial Penalty
Based on maxim

“Ubi jus Ibiremedium”

Means “when there is a right there must be some remedy”.
Whenever the law creates a duty, it should enforce the
specific execution of it.
Exceptions
 Duties of imperfect Obligation
 Those duties the breach of which gives no cause of action and
creates no liability at all. E.g A time-barred debt is an example of
it. Thought the debt exists in law, it is not enforceable.
 Duties incapable of specific enforcement
Duties which from their nature cannot be specifically enforced
after having once been broken. There wrongs are transitory and
non continuing.
 Specific performance inexpedient
 There are many cases where specific performance of a duty is
possible, the law may not resort to it.
 For example, if X contracts to render personal service to Y, Y
cannot enforce performance of this contract.

Theory of Penal
liability

Based on the maxim

“ actunon fa”cit reum, nisi mens sit rea”
Means
“which means that act alone does not amount to
crime, unless it is accompanied by guilty mind.”