The claimant sought damages in negligence against his school when he was hit in the eye by a stone thrown by another pupil at a seagull. The pupil now appealed. The judge had been criticised for providing inadequate supervision.
Held: The appeal succeeded: ‘First, to have one dinner lady supervisor who would be stretched to supervise over 150 pupils in years 7 and 8, only glancing occasionally at years 9 and 10, was in my view clearly negligent. Second, since the purpose of appropriate supervision is to deter children taking part in dangerous activities, as well as to stop dangerous activities if they do occur, a court should not be too ready to accept that the dangerous activity would have happened anyway. Third, where as here the recorder found witnesses called by the appellant were telling the truth, there was no reason not to accept their evidence that if a supervisor had been near they would not have thrown stones because they knew that stone throwing was prohibited.’
Citations:
[2009] EWCA Civ 456
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Personal Injury, Negligence, Education
Updated: 26 July 2022; Ref: scu.346226