Employment Law News - Archdiocese of the Catholic Church held Vicariously Liable for Sexual Abuse

The recent Court of Appeal case of MAGA v Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church [2010] is extremely interesting and topical. The Court discusses the concept of vicarious liability – where one person (usually an employer) is held responsible for the acts of another, and decided that an Assistant Priest should be treated as an employee of the Catholic Church and that it was fair and just that the Archdiocese should be vicariously liable for his sexual abuse of a non-Catholic boy.

The Court of Appeal found that the Birmingham Archdiocese were liable to pay damages for the sexual abuse of the boy who had engaged in youth work with the church in the 1970’s. The Priest had met the boy and invited him to attend the church disco. He had built up the relationship by paying him for washing his car and doing other small jobs.

The Assistant Priest’s supervisor had been informed by the parents of another boy that the Assistant Priest had sexually abused their child, but no action had been taken. In the 1990’s further allegations were made against the Assistant Priest and in 2000 the Archdiocese issued a statement accepting that the Assistant Priest was a danger to children.

The Court considered a number of different factors in reaching their decision, namely –

  • The Assistant Priest was dressed in his clerical uniform and he met the boy in the course of his employment with the Catholic Church;
  • The Assistant Priest had a special role involving trust and responsibility as well as moral guidance;
  • They had met and the relationship developed on Church premises;
  • There was a close connection between the work of the Assistant Priest and the abuse;

This special role gave him the opportunity to groom and then sexually abuse the boy.

We understand that there was no appeal against the Court’s assessment of damages at £17,500.00 for general damages and £15,000.00 for loss of earnings.

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