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Comment by paxcoder | Hacker News Reader

Not sure, they did this on company time, and acting on their behalf.

Doesn't matter. It was the lawyers' mistake, not the companies. If I order a pizza and the delivery driver mows down a crowd of people with his car on the way to me, that's not my fault.

This analogy isn't exactly fitting.

The pizza delivery person isn't acting as your agent and representative.

If you work for a company, and break something serious for a client - it's not you who gets sued, it's your company because you were acting on their behalf.

These lawyers were hired by Oracle to conduct legal matters on Oracle's behalf - if they win the case, it's not the lawyers who take home the prize - it's Oracle. Conversely, if they lose, it's not the lawyers who pay the penalty - it's Oracle.

So, it's not out of the real of possibility that Oracle will be fined or penalized in some way.

The lawyers don't work for Oracle, they work for the law firm, so your analogy doesn't fit.

They are Oracles legal agents, and therefore are acting on Oracle's behalf.

If they win, Oracle gets the rewards. If they lose, Oracle gets the penalties. If they screw up, Oracle gets the fines.

Nope, if they screw up their conduct as a lawyer, that's their problem. It's the same as paying a contractor to build a building for you. You get the outcome, but if in the process the contractor gets drunk and beats up one of the construction workers, he gets in trouble, not you.

There is a wide gap between paying for a service and hiring an employee to work for the company.

If I pay someone a million dollars to do work for me. And they cause half a million dollars in damages due to negligence, it's coming out of their pay.

That would, clearly, be between you and your agent.

Meanwhile, you would be legally exposed to lawsuit to reclaim that half million dollars in damages.

> If I order a pizza and the delivery driver mows down a crowd of people with his car on the way to me, that's not my fault.

Where'd you get that idea? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respondeat_superior

It might not be your fault, but the question of "who made the mistake?" doesn't really enter into it.

The delivery driver isn't my employee. Doesn't apply.

Oh, I totally misparsed your example as you operating the pizza place, rather than ordering a pizza.

I don't think it's clear that Oracle is in the same position wrt their lawyers as a pizza customer is wrt the delivery guy, though.

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