UNITED KINGDOM
Hill Dickinson
“Not just a borderline case” – Hill Dickinson success as Supreme Court hands down judgment in The Catholic Child Welfare Society & others –v- Various Claimants & The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools & others.
Kari Hansen, partner, and Hayley Riach, solicitor, are celebrating as the vicarious liability arguments upon which this action has been fought for the past seven years have finally been determined. The Supreme Court has clarified the law as to vicarious liability of unincorporated associations and emphasised that where there is an argument for dual vicarious liability each individual ’employer’ / ’employee’ relationship should be considered on its own merits. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has confirmed that it is possible for there to be dual vicarious liability.
In recent years, the principles of vicarious liability have been considered by Courts at all levels, particularly in the context of the sexual abuse of children. Today, the Supreme Court unanimously found that it was fair, just and reasonable for an unincorporated association of lay religious Brothers (“the Institute”) to share vicarious liability for abuse committed by some of its members.
The claims and parties
A group, presently consisting of 170 claimants, allege that they were subjected to physical and sexual abuse whilst they were residents at St William’s, an Approved School and later a Residential Care Home (‘the school’) in Market Weighton, Yorkshire, between 1958 and 1992.
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