Ceri-Siân Williams & Steven Ford QC consider when strict liability will be imposed on an innocent defendant
In the recent case of NA v Nottinghamshire County Council [2015] EWCA Civ 1139, [2015] All ER (D) 126 (Nov) the Court of Appeal considered the limits of a local authority’s liability to a child abused by foster parents, and set important limits on the law of vicarious liability and non-delegable duties.
NA had been physically and sexually abused in two local authority foster placements. The authority had not been negligent: it had taken reasonable care in the selection of the foster parents and the monitoring of the placements. Nonetheless, NA claimed that the authority was liable to her for the abuse, either vicariously or because it could not delegate to the foster carers the duty of care it owed to her.
The Court of Appeal, rejecting both arguments, considered whether the recent expansion of the law of vicarious liability extends the doctrine to the relationship between a local authority and a foster parent, and whether the criteria for a non-delegable duty identified in Woodland v Essex
