High Court of Australia
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
GAGELER CJ,
GORDON, EDELMAN, STEWARD, GLEESON, JAGOT AND BEECH‑JONES JJ
BISHOP PAUL BERNARD BIRD APPELLANT
AND
DP (A PSEUDONYM) RESPONDENT
Bird v DP (a pseudonym)
[2024] HCA 41
Date of Hearing: 14 March 2024
Date of Judgment: 13 November 2024
M82/2023
ORDER
1. Appeal allowed.
2. Set aside orders 2 and 5 of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria made on 3 April 2023 and, in their place, order that:
(a) The appeal be allowed with costs; and
(b) The orders made by the Supreme Court of Victoria on 25 January 2022 and 28 February 2022 be set aside and, in their place, order that the proceeding be dismissed with costs.
3. The appellant pay the respondent's costs of and incidental to the application for special leave to appeal and the appeal to this Court.
On appeal from the Supreme Court of Victoria
Representation
B W Walker SC with A M Dinelli KC and A D James-Martin for the appellant (instructed by Colin Biggers & Paisley Lawyers)
D R Campbell SC with G J Boas, J A G McComish and E H R Kelly for the respondent (instructed by Ken Cush & Associates)
Notice: This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.
CATCHWORDS
Bird v DP (a pseudonym)
Torts – Intentional torts – Vicarious liability – Where priest committed sexual abuse whilst carrying out pastoral duties as representative of Diocese – Where priest not agent or employee of Diocese – Whether Diocese vicariously liable for priest's sexual abuse – Whether vicarious liability extends beyond relationships of employment to relationships "akin to employment".
Appeals – Issue not raised at trial – Where respondent sought to rely on non-delegable duty – Where factual basis for duty not pleaded or tested at trial – Prejudice.
Words and phrases – "agency", "akin to employment", "course of employment", "negligence", "nominated defendant", "non-delegable duty", "prejudice", "representative", "scope of employment", "sexual abuse", "strict liability", "unincorporated association", "vicarious liability".
We try to embed the page this law was scraped from. If the site blocks framing, you still get the link and a local excerpt.
Last checked with source on —
Checking whether the official page can be embedded…
Plain-English simplify of this law: a short summary, key points, and both sides of the argument. Generated on first view via Replicate, then cached. Vote on what helps your study.
No study brief is cached for this law yet. Sign up to generate a plain-English brief.
Sign up to generate