Unless required by or under authority of law to employ that particular agent, a principal is responsible to third persons for the negligence of his agent in the transaction of the business of the agency, including wrongful acts committed by such agent in and as part of the transaction of such business; and for his willful omission to fulfill the obligation of the principal.
S.D. Codified Laws § 59-6-9
Responsibility of principal for agent's negligence or omission
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Moore v. Kluthe & Lane Ins. Agency, Inc. (1975)
Most recently applied in Frye-Byington v. Rapid City Medical Center (January 2021)
Source: CivC 1877, § 1374; CL 1887, § 3997; RCivC 1903, § 1693; RC 1919, § 1275; SDC 1939, § 3.0309
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.