Court of Appeal confirms occupiers‘ liability in football accident claim

The court of appeal has clarified the issue of occupiers’ liability in a case involving a 10-year old who was injured when a goalpost collapsed on him as he was playing football at a caravan park. Whilst the claim for damages had initially been dismissed by a judge, the court of appeal took a different view, finding that the accident could have been prevented had a daily inspection routine been in place at the caravan park.

Whilst on holiday at the caravan park with his family, the boy had been making use of a football pitch provided by the owners of the park. The boy had been playing in goal, and as he went to pick up the football from the goal net, his foot became caught in the netting. The boy fell over, and as he went to get up, the crossbar hit him in the face, causing him a serious facial injury. His family consulted a personal injury solicitor and a claim was brought against the owners of the holiday park for failing to properly secure the goalposts and crossbar to stop them falling over.

At court, the judge found that there was a foreseeable risk that the goal could fall and injure someone if it was not properly secured, and that the pegs securing the goal might have been removed by some of the holidaymakers or their children. However, the judge dismissed the case as he noted that it was unlikely that the goal had been left unsecured for more than a week, and that most of the time the pegs securing the goal were in place.

Not satisfied with the verdict, the boy’s parents and his solicitor to the case to the Court of Appeal. In this second trial, the Court of Appeal judge found that if the owners of the holiday park had been operating a regular system of inspections (which the safety inspector regarded as necessary and which the owners of the park claimed they had been carrying out) then the issue with the missing pegs would have been spotted on the day of the accident. As the regular inspections has either not taken place, or had not been thorough enough to spot the missing pegs, the judge allowed the appeal, and awarded the young boy substantial compensation for his injuries.

The case was important as many defendants in occupiers’ liability and public liability claims will say they have a regular system of inspections in place to spot defects or dangers. Using this defence allows them to argue that although there was a defect that caused injury, the defect had happened so recently that they had simply not had enough time to take measures to solve the problem. However, as we can see in this case, sometimes these inspections are simply not carried out to the required standard necessary to spot defects, and in some cases they are not carried out at all.

If you have been injured on holiday, or anywhere where the landowners or occupiers are claiming they have a regular system of inspections in place to spot potential causes of accidents, give Camps Solicitors a call.