POTENTIAL LIABILITIES FOR THE VOLUNTEER
AND THE VOLUNTEER SERVICE ORGANIZATION (top)

A volunteer or nonprofit organization may be held legally liable to a third party if the volunteer or organization commits some kind of legally recognized "wrong" against a third party. This legal wrong may be, for example, a breach of contract or tort committed against a third party. The most common forms of tort liability are negligence, strict liability, and intentional misconduct.

A nonprofit organization may be held liable for the acts of its volunteers under legal doctrines known as agency and respondeat superior. Generally, an agent is someone hired, retained, or employed by a principal to perform a certain task for the principal. Under the law, a principal is held legally liable for the wrongful actions of the agent if the agent committed those actions while acting in the scope of the agent’s authority. The doctrine of respondeat superior, which literally means "let the master answer," is just another way the law expresses the concept that a principal is liable for the actions of the agent committed within the scope of the agent’s authority.

The most common type of agency or respondeat superior liability arises when a paid employee commits a wrongful act within the scope of the employee’s employment. The doctrine may, however, apply with equal force in the event a volunteer commits a legal wrong within the scope of the duties and responsibilities the volunteer undertook for the organization.

Negligence Liability (top)

The most prevalent form of legal liability is negligence liability. Generally, negligence liability arises when a person fails to use ordinary care in performing some type of action; the person’s negligent conduct results in harm to another party, and the harm to the other party was a reasonably foreseeable result of the negligent conduct. Negligence liability would arise, for example, where a person driving a car was not paying careful attention to the road ahead and injured another person in an accident as a result. Volunteers who injure a third party because the volunteer failed to use ordinary care in performing the volunteered task may thus subject both themselves and the volunteer services organization to negligence liability.

Intentional Misconduct (top)

If you intentionally injure someone as a volunteer, you alone may be liable for the injury caused. The doctrine of respondeat superior may still apply to hold the organization liable for the volunteer’s intentional misconduct, but courts are more wary about invoking the doctrine of respondeat superior in intentional misconduct cases. Courts have often reasoned, particularly in a case of intentional misconduct which has no relation to the agent’s actual services for the principal, that such intentional misconduct is outside the scope of the agent’s employment or authority.

Additionally, intentional misconduct may be grounds for criminal prosecution or punitive damages. Under Oklahoma law, punitive damages may be imposed for misconduct which is reckless, malicious, intentional, or fraudulent.7 Like criminal sanctions, punitive damages are awarded to the injured party in order to punish the wrongdoer.

Strict Liability (top)

Strict liability is a legal concept under which you may be liable to another party regardless of whether you were negligent. Strict liability usually arises from an unreasonable risk or danger posed by a certain activity or product. Strict liability often applies to situations where an injury is caused by defective products, blasting operations, the use or storage of dangerous chemicals, or other inherently dangerous activities. Oklahoma law generally protects volunteers from such liability, and it is unlikely that the doctrine of strict liability would be invoked to impose liability upon you as a volunteer.