Frawley v. Nickolich
Arkansas Court of Appeals
41 S.W.3d 420 (2001)
Hinerman, an unpaid volunteer, accompanied bail bondsman Frawley (defendant) to a jail and, while there, answered Frawley's phone and gathered caller information for her, and separately distributed Frawley's business cards inside the jail without being asked to do so — conduct Frawley forbade once she learned of it. Because bail bondsmen and anyone acting on their behalf are barred from soliciting business in jails under Arkansas law, the state licensing board (plaintiff) found Frawley and her employer J & J Bonding (defendants) liable for Hinerman's card distribution based on an agency theory, suspending Frawley's license and fining J & J. The circuit court affirmed, and Frawley and J & J appealed again.
Whether an individual who is not a paid employee may still be an agent of another, such that her conduct is imputed to the principal, if there is evidence the principal assented to the individual acting on the principal's behalf and subject to the principal's control.