Frolic (law)

A frolic in the law of torts is where an employee acts on his/her own without obeying an order. When combined with a detour, where the employee makes a temporary physical departure from the service of his employer, the employer is not vicariously liable through the doctrine of "respondeat superior" for torts committed by an employee on a frolic and a detour. Similarly, in the law of workers' compensation, an employer is not liable for injuries incurred by an employee during a frolic and a detour.

To constitute a frolic and detour, the activity must be unequivocally unrelated to the employer's business. Thus, when the vice president of a bank traveling on business brought a woman not his wife to his hotel room, and then started smoking, accidentally started a fire, and both died as a result, the vice president's wife and children were still able to recover death benefits. "Wiseman v. Industrial Accident Commission", [http://online.ceb.com/calcases/C2/46C2d570.htm 46 Cal. 2d 570 (1956)] . The employee's occupation of the room was clearly related to his employment, and regardless of whether his guest was there for a legitimate purpose or not, it was reasonable to expect employees traveling on business to entertain guests in their hotel rooms.

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