First Principles of Business Law

5. An agent's duties to their principal

5.3. The duty to act personally and with due care and skill

Read the facts below, and then answer the questions.

ABC, an accounting form, relies on information stored in its computers. Concerned to ensure that data is not lost, ABC instructs D, a computer specialist, to identify and have installed a fail-safe daily backup system. D contacts E's company and asks for information on a backup system. E sends D the relevant documentation. D, who is busy, asks his assistant to read the documentation and tell him if everything is OK. The assistant says the system looks good and D tells E to go ahead and install it. However, as disclosed in the documentation, the system does not have an independent power supply and one evening it fails to perform a backup when there is a power cut. The next day, a computer failure causes data loss and there is no backup.

1. Is D obliged to carry out ABC's instructions himself rather than through an assistant?

2. Has D performed his duties as agent sufficiently well to discharge the duties imposed on an agent by the law?