Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 14:27:17 +1100

From: Harold Luntz

Subject: Vicarious liability for intentional torts again

Yet again the Privy Council has held that an intentional shooting in the West Indies was so closely connected to authorised acts, as a security guard at a football match, that it was just and reasonable to impose vicarious liability on the employer: Brown (near Relation of Paul Andrew Reid) v Robinson (14 December 2004).

The Privy Council, having also held that the trial judge had erred in the assessment of damages for non-pecuniary loss and not being in a position to assess such damages itself, remitted the case to the Court of Appeal, which had not dealt with the damages issue. However, since it was almost 20 years since the shooting, the PC made an interim award of the minimum damages that the plaintiff would recover. The source of the power to do so, which presumably had to be found in the statutes of Jamaica, was not referred to.

Harold Luntz.

Professorial Fellow,
Law School,
The University of Melbourne,
Victoria, 3010,
AUSTRALIA.

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