Monitor Prawniczy

no. 11/2021

Liability for damages caused by concealment of another person’s sexual offences (Art. 415 and 416 of the Civil Code)

DOI: 10.32027/MOP.21.11.3
Anna Wilk
Autorka jest wykładowcą akademickim w Wyższej Szkole Finansów i Prawa w Bielsku-Białej oraz radcą prawnym; ORCID: 0000-0002-9073-9153.
Abstract

The article refers to the problem of liability for damages caused by concealment of sexual offences as for one’s own guilt and to claims asserted by the victims of such offences vis-à-vis institutions employing the perpetrators (for example ecclesiastical legal persons). Victims often accuse such institutions of concealing information about dangerous inclinations of the perpetrators or their past sexual offences as well as enabling the perpetrators to continue their criminal activities (for example, by moving the paedophilic priests to another parish). However, the author does not focus on the traditional basis of vicarious liability (e.g. Art. 430 of the Civil Code), but on the general grounds of liability for the person’s own act (Art. 415 and 416 of the Civil Code) and tries to answer the question whether and under what conditions attributing such liability is possible.