The female plaintiff was sexually abused by a taxi driver. She became intoxicated at a party and her friend called the defendant taxi company, which dispatched the driver to pick her up. The defendant taxi company successfully moved for summary judgment on the basis that it should not be held vicariously liable for the intentionally tortious acts of the driver. Justice Broad found that the wrongful acts of the defendant driver were only coincidentally linked to the defendant taxi company’s activities as the operator of a taxi dispatching business. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, finding that the motions judge properly applied the law of vicarious liability and reached the correct conclusion on the record.
