Tort

Vicarious liability - course of employment - house warden at boarding school sexually abusing boys - sufficient connection between torts and employmentLister and others v Hesley Hall Ltd: HL (Lord Steyn, Lord Clyde, Lord Hutton, Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough and Lord Millett): 3 May 2001The warden of a boarding house at the defendants' school between 1979 and 1982 systematically sexually abused the claimants, boys in his care at the house.The claimants subsequently sought damages for personal injuries against the defendants, contending, among other things, that the defendants were vicariously liable for the torts committed by the warden.

The judge ruled on liability in their favour, but the defendants' appeal was allowed by the Court of Appeal.

The claimants appealed.Richard Maxwell QC and Rosalind Coe (instructed by Last Cawthra Feather, Shipley) for the claimants.

Andrew Collender and Andrew Miller (instructed by Beachcroft Wansbroughs, Leeds) for the defendants.Held, allowing the appeal, that there was a sufficient connection between the work that the warden had been employed to do and the acts of abuse committed by him for those acts to be regarded as having been committed in the course of his employment and for it to be fair and just to hold the defendants vicariously liable for them; Trotman v North Yorkshire County Council [1999] LGR 584 had been wrongly decided.

(WLR)