Case Summary – DZY (a pseudonym) v Trustees of the Christian Brothers [2025] HCA 16

On 9 April 2025, the High Court of Australia handed down their judgment in DZY (a pseudonym) v Trustees of the Christian Brothers [2025] HCA 16. The judgment dismissed an appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The case involved two prior settlement Deeds between the Appellant ('DZY') and the Respondent (the 'Trustees') releasing the Trustees from liability for a claim DZY proposed to issue in a court. DZY had alleged that between 1964 and 1968 when he was a student at a school operated by the Congregation of the Christian Brothers (the 'Congregation'), he was sexually abused by two members of the Congregation. The first Deed was entered in December 2012 for $80,000 inclusive of costs and the second, without undoing the first, in 2015 for $20,000 inclusive of costs. Both Deeds acknowledged that DZY did not allege that he suffered economic loss and made no demand for such loss as part of those settlements.