Brisbane father-of-two wins $300,000 payout after suing judge Salvatore Vasta, who jailed him in 2018

A man serving seven days in jail for a gross miscarriage of justice will receive more than $300,000 in damages after successfully suing the judge who jailed him.

Judge Salvatore Vasta will have to personally pay a portion of the damages being offered to the Brisbane man, known only by the pseudonym Mr Stradford.

The father of two was sentenced in December 2018 to a minimum of six months in prison for failing to comply with an order to provide financial documents during divorce proceedings.

The sentence was overturned and the man was released after six nights after the decision to imprison him was strongly criticized by an appeals court.

On Wednesday, a Federal Court judge also condemned Judge Vasta’s grave error in jailing Mr. Stradford when he ordered $309,500 in damages.

“The applicant in these proceedings was the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice,” Judge Michael Wigney said in his ruling.

“He was arrested and jailed for contempt, following what could reasonably be described as little more than a parody of a court hearing.”

Judge Vasta, a Federal Circuit Court judge, made “a number of fundamental and egregious errors” in jailing the man for contempt, without first concluding that he had disobeyed the court’s orders.

“He wrongly believed that another judge had reached that conclusion, but how exactly he could have arrived at that position under the circumstances is beyond belief,” Judge Wigney said.

The court ruled that Judge Vasta could not invoke judicial immunity to protect himself from paying damages because he had acted outside his jurisdiction in imprisoning Mr Stradford.

“His Honor has acted without or outside jurisdiction in the required sense,” Judge Wigney said.

“There was no good legal basis for issuing the prison sentence.”

The Commonwealth and Queensland were found vicariously liable for Mr Stradford’s capture and ordered to pay part of the damages for an ordeal in which the Brisbane man developed PTSD and a depressive disorder.