Legal Question in Consumer Law in District of Columbia
Am I responsible for an employee ordering goods not needed
An employee of our corporation without our knowledge ordered a set of business directories on the internet on approval to look over. After he received the books and got repeated calls to see if he was going to keep them (still without the owners of the corporations knwoledge) He eventually mailed them back to the publisher with regular postage, using our postage meter but with no type of receipt. The publishing house claimed to never receive the books back and has a collection agency telling us that we are responsible for paying the $1,400 bill because the package was addresed to this employee with our business name and address and was accepted at our office. The publisher was aware that this employee was not an owner and needed to get aproval from his bosses for the purchase which was never done. As a busineess, are we liable or should the collection agency go directly to our employee for payment?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Am I responsible for an employee ordering goods not needed
Your company's attorney or senior officer should send a letter to the publisher(copy to collection
agency) explaining that the employee who ordered the books was not authorized to do so, and that
in so doing he was acting on his own and beyond the scope of his employment, and that, therefore,your company is in no way liable for whatever consequences may ensue from this unauthorized action.
The fact that the directories were addressed to
the employee with your company's name and that he took delivery of the items at the company's address does not make your company responsible for paying for them.
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