The Bryan Funeral Home and Vicarious Responsibility

Rob McKinney

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I posted on a recent decision from the Tennessee Court of Appeals on the mishandling of a corpse and it has sparked several comments on the blog. Therefore , I thought I would follow up with a couple of observations. The folks at Bryan Funeral Home may be excellent people as reported on one of the posts. However, Tennessee as with most states has a legal principle called Vicarious Responsibility. Vicarious Responsibility means that Bryan Funeral Home is liable for the acts of Tri-State Crematorium whether Bryan Funeral Home did anything wrong or not. The true definition is that" a person who is authorized to act for another person or in place of anther person is an agent of that person". A principal can be held responsible for the acts or omissions of the principal's agent. Here , the funeral home may be liable for the negligent acts of Tri-State. Vicarious responsibility or imputed liability is an important thing to investigate in every accident or injury case.