Language – Sheet Home

In the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the term is defined as “to extend (a sail) and set as flat as possible by holding upon the sheets” and also “to fix the responsibility for:  bring home to one”.  It is the latter usage which is most common, in particular in  legal writing.

In the Macquarie Online Dictionary, the definition includes the following:

… to attach (blame, responsibility etc):  “the blame can be sheeted home directly and completely to the management, which created the disaster, and the State Government, which allowed it to happen” – Advertiser, 1990 …

The usage in the case law is as follows:

In Hollis v  Vabu Pty Ltd (2001) 207 CLR 21, [2001] HCA 44, the court wrote (at [117]):

… No doubt there are attractions in imposing an effectively unqualified liability upon the respondent for its courier’s negligence. The respondent can, indeed has, insured against it. An injured plaintiff would have recourse, indirectly at least, to the insurer if he could sheet home liability to the respondent. …

In Cassegrain v Gerard Cassegrain & Co Pty Ltd (2015) 254 CLR 425, [2015] HCA 2, the court wrote (at [82]):

The primary judge found that there was a lack of evidence to conclude that Claude exercised actual or implied authority on behalf of the appellant in relation to either the first or second transfer of the Dairy Farm so as to sheet home his fraud to her.