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JGE v English Province of Our Lady of Charity and another

High Court, Queens Bench Division: MacDuff J, November 2011 Sexual abuse – vicarious liability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2012

Ruth Arlow
Affiliation:
Barrister, Deputy Chancellor of the Dioceses of Chichester and Norwich
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Abstract

Type
Case Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2012

The claimant alleged that while resident between 1970 and 1972 in a children's home managed by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity she was raped by the now deceased Father Baldwin. In these interlocutory proceedings the issue was whether or not the second defendants, the Trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocese, were vicariously liable for Baldwin's wrongful acts. The Trustees denied liability on the grounds that Baldwin was not their employee. Following the reasoning in Maga v Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church [2010] EWCA Civ 256, the court concluded that, by ‘appointing Father Baldwin as a priest’ [sic] and thus clothing him with all the powers involved, the defendants created a risk of harm to others. At the time of writing an appeal was pending. [Frank Cranmer]