401.14b (1) Preliminary Issues - Vicarious Liability - Agency, Master and Servant (Independent Contractor Distinguished) On (claimant)'s claim there is a preliminary issue for you to decide. That issue is whether (name) was an agent of (defendant) and was acting within the scope of [his] [her] employment at the time and place of the incident in this case. [An agent is a person who is employed to act for another, and whose actions are controlled by [his] [her] employer or are subject to [his] [her] employer's right of control.] An employer is responsible for the negligence of [his] [her] [its] agent if such negligence occurs while the agent is performing services which [he] [she] was employed to perform or while the agent is acting at least in part because of a desire to serve [his] [her] employer and is doing something that is reasonably incidental to [his] [her] employment or something the doing of which was reasonably foreseeable and reasonably to be expected of persons similarly employed. [But a person is not responsible for the negligence of an independent contractor or of the agents or employees of an independent contractor. An independent contractor is a [person] [business] who is engaged by another to perform specific work according to [his] [her] [its] own methods and whose methods of performing the work are not controlled by the person engaging [him] [her] [it] and are not subject to that person's right of control.]