Court case(1862) 1 H and C 526

The defendant company ran omnibuses in London. Its drivers were given printed instructions forbidding them to race with or obstruct the omnibuses of other companies. One of its drivers, competing for passengers, pulled his omnibus across the road in front of the plaintiff's omnibus in order to obstruct it, and caused a collision in which the plaintiff's omnibus was overturned and damaged. The driver admitted that he did it on purpose to obstruct the other vehicle. The company denied liability on the ground that the driver had acted contrary to its express orders.

The Court of Exchequer Chamber held the company liable. The driver was employed to drive the omnibus and to get as much custom as he could for his employers; in obstructing the plaintiff's omnibus he was acting in the course of that employment and in the interest of his employers, though in a wrongful and forbidden manner. A prohibition by the master does not prevent the act from being within the course of employment if it is only a mode of doing the work the servant was employed to do. The instructions limited the manner in which the driver was to do his work, not the scope of the work itself.