A Roman Catholic diocese in Newfoundland is vicariously liable for hundreds of sexual assaults one of its priests committed against young boys over a 30-year period, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.
The court also found that two successive bishops were directly liable for their "failure to properly direct and discipline" Father Kevin Bennett during his prolonged sexual rampage.
Father Bennett's 36 victims will be paid by the diocese after a trial court determines the actual abuse each plaintiff suffered and how much they should be paid to compensate.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Richard Rogers, predicted that based on recent cases involving abuse by priests — where damage awards have amounted to several hundreds of thousands of dollars — the individual awards will be high.
"We are not going to hold back in any way when it comes to a settlement," Mr. Rogers said. "We are going to go for everything we can."
The Supreme Court did not rule on another key point raised by the lawsuit — whether the worldwide Roman Catholic Church is a corporate entity that can be sued. A 9-0 majority said it will deal with the issue on another occasion.
"The record here is too weak to permit the Court to responsibly embark on the important and difficult question of whether the Roman Catholic Church can be held liable in a case such as this," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote.
Mr. Rogers said this side-issue has no real effect on plaintiffs' fortunes. "Most dioceses have the financial ability to deal with compensation, so it was not necessary to bring the worldwide church in as an entity," he said.
Father Bennett admitted abusing his victims from 1961 until 1989. After winning the trust of their parents, he took the boys on trips where he lavished liquor and gifts on them and then abused them sexually.
He also used money and outright intimidation to ensure their compliance and discretion.
At the original trial, the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. George's sought to avoid paying damages by insisting it was a mere landholding entity. The diocese covers 21 parishes in western Newfoundland. The trial judge found it vicariously liable for the intentional acts of Father Bennett.
"To restrict the purpose of the corporation sole to the acquisition, holding and administration of property is to capture only a portion of the purpose it is intended to serve and to artificially truncate its functions," Chief Justice McLachlin agreed yesterday.
"If the bishop is negligent in the discharge of his duties, the corporation is directly liable, because the office of bishop/archbishop, the enterprise of the diocese and the episcopal corporation are legally synonymous."
Thursday's ruling is seen as having profound implications for any non-profit organization and for federal liability in more than 30,000 lawsuits launched by natives who were placed in residential schools. (About 60 per cent of the residential schools were operated by the government in concert with the Roman Catholic Church.) The federal government had hoped that the Supreme Court might side with several recent provincial appellate court rulings, which had been treating defendants differently if they were a non-profit or charitable organization.
Plaintiffs in these cases had increasingly been expected to show a degree of actual fault by an employer or supervising agency before they could be found vicariously liable for abuses committed by their employees or agents.
Chief Justice McLachlin said in no uncertain terms that non-profit employers enjoy no special immunity. Any lower court that has lowered the bar for these organizations was misinterpreting earlier, seminal Supreme Court judgments, she said.
"This judgment reaffirms the earlier jurisprudence that religious organizations are responsible for negligent or criminal activity of their clergy," Mr. Rogers said.
The government also lost in another respect. Had the worldwide church been found to be exposed to paying damages, it would likely have had to pay a substantial share of damage settlements in the resident schools cases.
While the local dioceses will still be liable in each case, as co-defendants, the government will have to work out settlements with them on an individual basis.
Mr. Rogers added that by awarding legal costs to the plaintiffs on a "solicitor-and-client" scale — effectively doubling the amount the defendants must pay in costs — the Supreme Court has helped compensate the victims for years of delay they were forced to endure.
Religious organizations have used delay as a major tactic in defeating sexual abuse victim, he said.
"Let's face it — these defendants have very deep pockets," Mr. Rogers said. "Had the defendants not put our clients through years of litigation, we probably would have been able to resolve this in a more reasonable manner. This should be a wake-up call for them."
