Hannis v. Driver

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 548
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 170

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Automobiles—Master and servant — Oivner’s business..</p> <p>Where the owner of a car permits his chauffeur to use it, and the chauffeur uses it for his own purpose, the relation of master and servant is superseded by a bailment and this relation continues until the ear is returned to the place provided by the owner for its lodgment, or until the chauffeur is again acting under the master’s specific direction and control.</p> <p>The fact that an accident happens while the chauffeur is returning the car to its place of lodgment does not change the status of owner or borrower and a general instruction to return the car cannot be regarded as a specific direction from the master placing the ear under his control.</p> <p>Where the driver of an automobile takes the car on an errand for the owner, his employer, and after he has completed such errand, takes the car under a general permission to use it when not engaged for the owner, and drives it exclusively on his own business, to a number of places some distance apart, and in a direction opposite to that where the garage is located, the owner will not be liable for the negligent act of the driver committed while the latter was driving the car to the garage.</p>