The doctrine imputes an employee's negligence to a borrowing party who assumed control over the work performed. In healthcare it may shift hospital employee negligence to a supervising physician.
Control over the specific work is the test.
Alternative Names:
Borrowed Employee, Loaned Servant Doctrine
Why it Matters?
Control over the specific act rather than general presence is what the doctrine requires, so a surgeon directing a nurse's particular action may borrow that servant while general supervision does not transfer responsibility. Hospitals invoke it to shift liability to physicians and physicians resist for the same reason, which makes it a source of conflict between defendants who otherwise share interests.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What does the doctrine require?
Why does it create defendant conflict?
