Labour Research (June 2001)

Law Matters

Employer liability

The House of Lords has held that a boarding school was liable for sexual abuse against children carried out by a warden employed by the school. The school had undertaken to care for the boys, through the services of its warden. The ruling is important because it extends the liability of employers for unlawful acts committed by employees, and does not allow them to say that they are not liable because what the employee did was outside his contract.

Lister v Hesley Hall, House of Lords


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