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The Supreme Court confirmed that the "close connection" test applied in previous cases was the right test. To apply the test to this case, it was necessary to first consider the nature of the employee's role which "must be addressed broadly". Secondly, the court must consider whether there is a sufficiently close connection between the employee's position and the wrongful act. The necessary connection could be found in cases where employees use or misuse their position of employment so that they injure the claimant.
In this case, the employee's job was to attend to customers, and whilst the assault was not within the scope of the employee's job, it happened in an unbroken series of events from when the claimant made a request of the employee. There was no "metaphoric removal of the uniform" just because the employee stepped out from behind the counter and by ordering the claimant to stay away from the employer's premises, he was appearing to act for his employer's business. Since the role of the employee was to serve customers, though he grossly abused his position, the employer was held vicariously responsible for the subsequent assault.
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