Place and Place v Trustees of Saltus Grammar School 1993 Civil Jur. No. 199

• Jurisdiction: Bermuda
• Judgment Date: 12 May 1993
• Date: 12 May 1993
• Docket Number: Civil Jurisdiction 1993 No. 199
• Court: Supreme Court (Bermuda)

In the Supreme Court of Bermuda

Ward, J

Civil Jurisdiction 1993 No. 199

Howard Albert Place

and

Wolde-Maryam Place, A Minor Suing by Howard Albert Place His Next Friend

Plaintiffs

and

The Trustees of Saltus Grammar School

Defendant

Miss Clare Hatcher for the Plaintiffs

Mr. Jeffrey Elkinson for the Defendant

R v Fernhill Manor School ex parte BrownTLR The Times 5 June 1992

Herring v TemplemanUNK [1973] 3 All ER 569

Natural justice — Student expelled from school — Whether student given the chance to present his case before impartial tribunal — Audi alteram partem rule

RULING

The Plaintiffs have applied by an Ex Parte Summons of the 4th May, 1993 for a declaration that in expelling Wolde-Maryam Place from Saltus Grammar School on or about the 14th April 1993, the Defendants failed to comply with the rules of natural justice and also for an order restraining the defendants from preventing the return of the said Wolde-Maryam Place to the school. There are other alternative prayers which, if granted, would produce the same result. The documents in support of the application were served on the Defendants and there has been an inter partes hearing.

Wolde-Maryam Place is a boy of 14 years who was born on the 23rd December 1978 and who was a student at various levels of the Saltus School group for the past nine years. He is now in the Senior School. He is the son of a priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Saltus Grammar School is a private fee-paying school administered by trustees under The Saltus Grammar School Act 1983. The headmaster is an agent. officer or servant of the Trustees.

On Saturday, 3rd April 1993 forty-two students and five teachers, three men and two women, left Bermuda for a sports tour of the United Kingdom. The tour was scheduled to last until the 13th April. On the evening of the 5th April an incident occurred in a room in the hotel where the group was staying. The room was that of two girls, namely Mandy and Natasha, and at the time of the incident the two girls were in the room along with four boys of whom Wolde-Maryam Place was one. Initially the girls did not want the teachers to become involved. However, another girl in an adjoining room made a report to the teachers and after they became involved, the girls told Mr. Raistrick, one of the teachers, that they did not want the boys to be punished. The girls complained of having had their breasts fondled without their consent. The specific complaint against Wolde-Maryam is that he held down the girl Natasha, who was 14 years old, while another boy Woolridge, who was 17 years old, fondled her breast and lay on top of her.

On the 6th April Wolde-Maryam was twice questioned by teachers. At the...