Vicarious Liability

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Bishop not vicariously liable for abuse by clergy

The High Court of Australia has handed down a significant decision on the law of “vicarious liability”, ruling that a church body is not automatically liable for sexual assault carried out by priests or ministers, where those persons are not employed by the church. In Bird v DP (a pseudonym) [2024] HCA 41 (13 November 2024) the court ruled (by 6-1 majority) that the doctrine of vicarious liability should not be extended to apply to relationships “akin to employment”. In doing so it upheld an appeal against the decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ballarat (and the diocese) should be held to be vicariously liable for historic acts of child abuse committed by one Coffey, who at the time was an assistant priest in the diocese. It was accepted at all times that a priest is not an employee of the bishop or diocese. (For reasons why this is correct, see my previous post on employment status of clergy).

While I think this decision on vicarious liability is the correct application of the law of Australia, I want to stress that this does not mean I think churches should not be able to be held civilly liable for abuse committed by clergy. I have argued that an alternative doctrine, known as “non-delegable duty” (NDD), should apply even in cases of intentional sexual abuse, where a church has accepted the care of children and young people into its activities. However, NDD was not argued at the initial stages of this litigation, and the High Court held in Bird that they would defer until another day a ruling on whether NDD can apply in cases of intentional wrongdoing.

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Vicarious Liability of Bishop for abuse committed by clergy

In a decision handed down just prior to Christmas, DP (a pseudonym) v Bird [2021] VSC 850 (22 December 2021), a judge of the Victorian Supreme Court ruled that the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Ballarat could be sued as vicariously liable for child sexual abuse committed by an assistant parish priest against the plaintiff DP when he was 5 years old (in 1971). The decision (as noted in a recent online press report) seems to be the first time a diocese has been found vicariously liable under common law principles for the actions of a priest, in Australia. In this note I will suggest that the reason for this is that the decision is wrong, as inconsistent with clear High Court of Australia authority. This does not mean that I think that the organised church ought to be allowed to escape liability for harm committed by clergy to children in its care. To the contrary, as explained below, I think the High Court ought to revisit another area of common law which prevents many such claims at the moment. But the decision in DP is not consistent with the course of development of the law of vicarious liability and will, in my judgment, be overturned if there is an appeal on this point.

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Church Liability for clergy child abuse

As in other parts of the Western world, the church has been in the spotlight over the last few years in Australia as the scope and impact of sexual abuse committed by clergy, and in some cases covered up by church leaders, has become more apparent. Here the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is doing what seems to be an excellent job in encouraging victims to come forward and report harm they have suffered in this way. It is painful for Christians and others who have supported community organisations like the YMCA to hear the stories of what has happened to vulnerable children who should have been cared for, but instead were in some cases exploited for sexual gratification. But it is vital for the truth to come out about these events, so that victims can feel that they are finally being heard, and where possible receive compensation for the harm they have suffered.

As well as teaching “Law and Religion” as an elective, I teach “Torts” to first year law students. Torts is about civil liability, “suing people for stuff” as I sometimes summarise it. The question of the liability of churches for the sexual abuse suffered by children at the hands of members of the clergy provides one area where two of my main academic interests co-incide. Recently I was invited to deliver a paper on the question of holding churches responsible for damages in this area, to a local law firm, Kelso’s, who are acting on behalf of a number of clients who have been harmed in this way. (The firm runs an excellent “unofficial” website connected with the Royal Commission.) The paper can be found here for those who are interested in exploring some of the legal issues.