Negligence - duty of care not owed to pupil falling off swing during school sports day

Simonds v Isle of Wight Council: QBD (Mr Justice Gross): 23 September 2003

The claimant, then aged five, had a picnic lunch with his mother during his school sports day at local playing fields.

The mother left to go shopping, telling the claimant to return to the teachers supervising the afternoon's activities.

Instead of returning he went to some swings, jumped off, fell and broke his arm.

The judge, despite rejecting the allegation of inadequate supervision, found the defendant local authority liable since, having identified the hazardous nature of the swings, the school had failed to take adequate steps to deal with them either by immobilising them or restricting access.

The local authority appealed on the grounds, among other things, that the judge had erred in applying the wrong standard of care, and on the issue of causation.

Mark Sullivan (instructed by Moore & Blatch, Southampton) for the claimant; David Sanderson (instructed by King & Franckeiss, Portsmouth) for the local authority.

Held, allowing the appeal, that the sports day had been a properly supervised event and the school had had a good plan for dealing with the swings; that, since playing fields could not be made free of all hazards, the mere fact that a school had diagnosed a possible or potential hazard did not mean it was duty bound to take further steps to make access or use impossible; that balancing the element of risk against the plan, the school was not in breach of duty; that the claimant's mother had not re-delivered him back to the school's care at any time before the accident happened; and that the accident disclosed no causative fault on the school's part.