UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 November 2012
A Catholic diocese has successfully forced a Christian Brothers order to share the cost of compensating more than 170 victims of alleged physical and sexual abuse who attended a Yorkshire children’s home.
The landmark decision in the supreme court confirms advances in the legal doctrine of “vicarious liability” under which religious bodies are deemed responsible for the criminal actions of their priests.
Churches have repeatedly attempted to evade liability by claiming that the relationship between a priest or monk and their diocese or religious order is not that of employee and employer.
The supreme court decision related to St William’s residential school in Market Weighton, east Yorkshire. It involved a dispute between the diocese of Middlesbrough and the De La Salle order of Christian Brothers over who should pay compensation.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.