Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Guy v. Donald — Opinion of the Court
“ Whether the ground be policy or tradition, such a liability is imposed, as we all know, in many cases. When a man is carrying on business in his private interest and intrusts a part of the work to another, the world has agreed to make him answer for that other as if he had done the work himself. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Guy v. Donald — Opinion of the Court
“ It is true that he is not excused by care in selection or orders sufficient to secure right conduct, if obeyed. But when he could not select, could not control, and could not discharge, the guilty man, he does not answer for his torts. As a familiar instance, the servants of an independent contractor are not the servants of the contractee. The liability of a vessel when in the hands of a compulsory pilot is not put upon the ground that the pilot is the agent or servant of the owners, and therefore does not bear upon the question. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Guy v. Donald — Opinion of the Court
“ A man who is responsible before the law is alleged to have committed a tort. It is proposed to make other men pay for it who not only have not commanded it or any act of which it was the natural consequence, but who would have prevented it if they could, and who have done what they could to prevent it, so far as the qualifications and employment of the pilot were not taken out of their hands by law. ”
