Question

1. Ashley is the Transport Manager for Target Corp. of Minneapolis and has ordered shipment of Halloween costumes from the distribution center in Minnesota to Dallas, Texas, hiring USF Holland as the common carrier. On the transport to Texas, the driver decides to “get in the spirit” of the holiday and opens the truck and finds a costume of Osama Bid Laden (it is irrelevant he is now dead), and puts it on. In Oklahoma, Homeland Security officers working on the interstate and toll way stop the driver and detain him. This causes the freight to be held up and does not get to the stores in Texas until after Halloween. Does Ashley have a claim against USF Holland for full value?  

            Yes []   No []

If not, which common law exception governs this?   If yes, explain

Answer 1

Yes

The carrier has the responsibility and liability unless there are certain exceptions that is permissible by law. In this case, the driver on duty decided to act in a way that caused the overall cargo to be delayed. Now, in some situations the driver could be considered liable other than USF Holland. However, in this particular scenario, the driver was on duty when he chose to make a poor decision (dressing up as Osama Bin Laden). Since this happened in the line of duty, USF Holland is responsible for their employee’s behavior by the doctrine of Respondeat Superior. This means that Ashley have a claim against USF Holland.