Prince Alfred College Incorporated v ADC

The High Court of Australia considered an appeal from the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia in a dispute between Prince Alfred College Incorporated, the appellant, and ADC, the respondent. The case concerned allegations of sexual abuse of a student by a teacher at the College.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the College was vicariously liable for the wrongful acts of its employee, a teacher, who had sexually abused the respondent. This required the Court to determine the scope of the employer's vicarious liability for the conduct of an employee, particularly when that conduct was an intentional and criminal act.

The High Court, in a joint judgment, clarified the principles governing vicarious liability. It held that an employer is vicariously liable for the wrongful acts of an employee if those acts are so closely connected with the acts the employee was authorised to do, or so closely connected with the employment, that it is just to hold the employer liable. The Court distinguished between acts that are merely done in the course of employment and acts that are so connected to the employment that they can be considered an unauthorised mode of doing an authorised act. In this instance, the Court found that the teacher's abuse, while a criminal act, was not so closely connected with his employment as to render the College vicariously liable. The appeal was allowed.