Evidence in Rathjen civil suit could involve documents from UTAS’ 3000 staffers
Lawyers continue to debate what is ‘relevant’ evidence in a civil suit lodged against former vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen alleging he groped a former colleague.
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University of Tasmania staff emails and correspondence regarding a complaint of sexual misconduct against former vice-chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen were the focus of another evidence discovery hearing on Tuesday.
The hearing in the Supreme Court of Tasmania forms part of ongoing civil action against Prof. Rathjen and UTAS brought by a former UTAS employee after allegedly being groped by the former leader at multiple UTAS functions in 2016 and 2017.
The former staff member is seeking damages from Prof. Rathjen and UTAS, claiming in court documents the university was “vicariously liable” for assaults allegedly perpetrated by the former vice-chancellor.
The former employee, represented by Audrey Mills, is in the process of lodging an extension of time for the complaint, which UTAS claims had been lodged after the three-year statute of limitations period expired.
Part of the extension involves obtaining evidence from UTAS, part of the hearing today.
However, UTAS previously opposed an application by Ms Mills on behalf of the ex-staffer for university documents in their case, stating they were “not relevant” to the time-extension application.
Both UTAS lawyers and Ms Mills were back in front of Associate Justice Michael Daly on Tuesday to continue the debate on relevant evidence.
Documents included email correspondence as well as university policies and processes for handling sexual assault complaints.
Ms Mills also pushed in court for UTAS’ response to the Maree Norton report, an independent review into previous sexual harassment complaints against Prof. Rathjen, including one from the former staffer.
UTAS’ defence states that some categories of evidence, including the university’s internal communications were not specific enough and could encapsulate the “university’s 3000 permanent and causal employees”.
Defence stated some categories of evidence would need to be narrowed.
The parties will return to court on October 21 to hear an application from UTAS’ defence.
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