PI Brief Update

Editorial: The Limits of Vicarious Liability - Aidan Ellis, Temple Garden Chambers

20/07/12. Any first year law student could recite that a Defendant may be vicariously liable for torts committed by another if (1) there is a relationship of employer / employee between the Defendant and the tortfeasor and (2) the tort was committed in the course of the tortfeasor’s employment. Much of the colourful caselaw focuses on the second issue and on whether certain acts were a frolic of the employee’s own. In JGE v the Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust [2012] EWCA Civ 918, the Court of Appeal had to address the limits of the first issue: can vicarious liability apply outside a traditional employment relationship.

The case was one, sadly, of a substantial number of cases in which the Claimants allege that they were the victims of sexual abuse by a priest. In order to establish liability against the Roman Catholic Church rather than simply the individual priest, the Claimant relied on vicarious liability. But a parish priest is not an employee of the Church. The reason is that when a Bishop appoints an individual to the office of parish priest, neither...

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