Law Weblog

Negligence – duty of care – school not liable when boy falls off swing

Simonds v Isle of Wight Council (2003)QBD
Playing fields could not be made free of all hazards and because a school had diagnosed a hazard did not mean it was duty bound to take further steps to make access or use impossible.
The issue in this case was “causation”.

A five year old was told him to return to his teachers after lunch with his mum during a sports day. He went to play on swings and broke his arm.
Held: The school had been responsible for him all day and that the mother’s acts or omissions had not broken the chain of causation. However, this was simply an accident which had not disclosed any causative fault. The school had had a good plan for dealing with the swings; no one other than the claimant had played on them. Balancing the element of risk, it was not reasonable to impose a legal duty on a school to immobilise the swings any more than it would be to rope off a tree on the field. Playing fields could not be made free of all hazard. Furthermore, since the boy’s mother had not redelivered him back to the care of the school, there was no breach of any duty by the school.