The Catholic Church has won a High Court appeal against rulings it was vicariously liable for the actions of a priest who allegedly sexually abused a five-year-old in 1971.
The man claimed he was abused during two family events by Father Bryan Coffey.
He was awarded $200,000 when two earlier court rulings found the church was vicariously liable for the harm caused by Father Coffey.
In the High Court, the church argued it could only be vicariously liable for the actions of someone who was an employee, saying Father Coffey was employed in a different capacity.
Today the High Court agreed, upholding the church’s appeal.
Man first took church to court in 2021
The victim said he was abused during two family events, by Father Bryan Coffey, when his family lived at Port Fairy in Victoria.
Coffey was convicted in the Ballarat County Court in February 1999 of multiple counts of sexual abuse against other children, and was given a three-year suspended sentence.
He died in 2013.
The man first took the church to court in 2021 when he was awarded $200,000 for pain and suffering in a finding that the church was vicariously liable.
The church appealed and lost and then took the matter to the High Court saying it was only vicariously liable if there was an employee-employer relationship, and that wasn’t the case for Coffey.
But while the point had been accepted by the other courts, they had also found Father Coffey had occupied a special place in the hierarchy of the church, which did give rise to vicarious liability.
A problematic case
The case was always problematic.
The man had already sought redress from the church over physical abuse he said he suffered at the hands of a female teacher.
The judge in the case noted it had been extraordinary that even with the assistance of solicitors the man never mentioned Father Coffey’s actions during that process.
The court heard the man had had a difficult life, plagued by depression which he put down to the abuse, although he also didn’t tell his psychologists over the years.
He told the court he had made little mention of the incident until he saw an advertisement in a local paper from some Canberra lawyers.
The judge found deep flaws in the man’s account, but said the abuse was consistent with Coffey’s other victims and accepted the advertisement had revived his memories.
Today’s ruling is an important precedent for similar cases, where the alleged perpetrators and most of the witnesses have died.
