Legal Definitions - delegation of duties

Delegation of duties occurs when one party to a contract arranges for a third party to perform a specific obligation or task that the first party originally agreed to carry out. While the third party performs the work, the original party who delegated the duty typically remains ultimately responsible to the other party of the contract if the duty is not performed correctly or at all.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a homeowner hires a general contractor to build an addition to their house. The contract specifies that the general contractor is responsible for all aspects of the construction, including plumbing. Instead of doing the plumbing work themselves, the general contractor hires a separate, specialized plumbing company to install all the pipes and fixtures. In this scenario, the general contractor has performed a delegation of duties. They delegated the specific duty of plumbing installation to the plumbing company. However, the general contractor remains responsible to the homeowner for ensuring the plumbing work is completed correctly and according to the contract's specifications.

• Consider a marketing agency that signs a contract with a client to design and launch a comprehensive digital advertising campaign. Part of the campaign involves creating a series of animated video ads. The marketing agency, lacking in-house animation specialists, contracts with a freelance animator to produce these videos. Here, the marketing agency has delegated the duty of creating the animated video ads to the freelance animator. The agency is still accountable to its client for the quality and timely delivery of the animated videos as part of the overall campaign.

• A professional musician is booked to perform at a wedding reception. A week before the event, the musician falls ill and is unable to perform. To fulfill their contractual obligation, the musician arranges for a equally skilled substitute musician to play in their place, ensuring the substitute knows all the required songs and arrives on time. This is an example of a delegation of duties. The original musician delegated their duty to perform to the substitute. Even though the substitute performs, the original musician remains responsible to the wedding couple for ensuring the performance meets the agreed-upon standards.