header-logo header-logo

Not black & white

10 August 2012 / Richard Scorer
Issue: 7526 / Categories: Features , Personal injury
printer mail-detail
rexfeatures_482854a_4

Grey areas still exist at the boundaries of vicarious liability, notes Richard Scorer

In JGE v The Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust [2012] EWCA Civ 938, the Court of Appeal upheld a first instance decision making the Catholic Church (or rather its constituent dioceses and orders) vicariously liable for its priests who commit child abuse.

The decision is significant for the Church as it has had a serious problem of child abuse by priests in the last few decades and the compensation claims arising from these cases are coming before the courts. The question for the court was whether the Church is liable to the victim on a no-fault basis irrespective of whether it knew or ought to have known that the priest in question posed a risk to children. The case has been erroneously described in the media as being about whether priests are employees, but in reality it was about the scope of vicarious liability in circumstances where the perpetrator of abuse is “akin to an employee”.

Background

Following

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll