Wilcox v. City of Chicago

Citations

• 107 Ill. 334
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 267

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and servant—respondeat superior. A master is liable for injury to others caused by negligence of his servant while in the performance of acts within the line of his duty.</p> <p>2. Same—exception to the rule, as to liability of a city for negligent acts of members of its fire department. But cities are not liable for the negligent acts of the officers or men employed in their fire departments while in the discharge of their duty, thus creating an exception in this class of cases to the general rule of respondeat superior.</p> <p>3. This exemption from liability is placed by some of the authorities upon the ground that the service is performed by the corporation in obedience to an act of the legislature, and that the members of the fire department, although appointed and paid by the city, are to be regarded rather as officers of the city charged with a public service, than as servants of the city for whose conduct it is liable. But it is not essential, to the doctrine of exemption that the service should be performed in obedience to a positive requirement of the law. The exception to the rule obtains even where there is a merely voluntary exercise of a power given by statute, and may well rest upon the ground of public policy, which would forbid the existence of such liability.</p>